
Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2001 11:57:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: peter.styles@enron.com
To: steven.kean@enron.com, maureen.mcvicker@enron.com
Subject: FW: Bullets re California in the NL?
Cc: nailia.dindarova@enron.com, richard.shapiro@enron.com
Bcc: nailia.dindarova@enron.com, richard.shapiro@enron.com

I would add to what Teun says below a good lesson from California for the
Dutch: Disconnect the functioning of the retail and wholesale markets at your
peril. If bad regulatory/ political  intervention gets in the way of
participation by new and old players in both on a level playing field,
fingers will get burnt. In the Netherlands the incumbent generators and
vertically integrated distributors have been given unfair advantages in a
non-transparent manner in the wholesale market, whilst enjoying more or less
guaranteed prices in the retail market. New entrants/ importers got squeezed
and most consumers have not yet enjoyed the full benefits of liberalisation.
Incidentally, in both California and the Netherlands there was excessive
political trumpeting of the benefits and of the enlightenment of policymakers
in advance, followed by a mess in practice.

