power corner." 
Separated by just a few city blocks, four major power wholesalers run 
Byzantine trading systems that sway energy prices across the nation with 
minimal oversight from the government. 
The Houston trading floors run by Enron Corp., Reliant Energy, Dynegy Inc. 
and Duke Energy represent ground zero in a power crisis threatening the 
quality of life in much of the Western United States this summer.
By seizing upon the opportunities created by deregulation and leveraging the 
Internet, the Houston traders have introduced the ruthlessness of the free 
market into the once-sedate power industry. 
In the process, they have driven two California utilities to the financial 
brink and electrified the electricity business, just as junk bond traders 
ignited Wall Street in the 1980s and venture capitalists fueled Silicon 
Valleyof its trading business on a Web site launched in November 
1999. The company describes Enrononline.com as the world's biggest e-commerce 
site, based on the completion of 548,000 transactions, totaling $336 billion, 
with 3,000 customers in 2000. 
Following Enron's lead, Duke, Reliant and another major California generator, 
Mirant Corp., banded together with Wall Street investment banks Goldman Sachs 
and Dean Witter Morgan Stanley to launch IntercontinentalExchange.com. 
The 7-month-old site reported daily trading volumes of 3 million megawatt 
hours in late February. 
San Diego attorney Michael Aguirre believes the power companies are using the 
password-protected online exchanges to secretly share information and control 
the power supply to manipulate prices. Aguirre has spent the past six months 
scrutinizing the trading operations as he pursues a lawsuit alleging that the 
power