(This post is based upon this thread started by JulieWaters)
A funny thing happened when I searched for “Enexus” at Entergy’s corporate website. I learned some lessons about corporate malfeasance, and it was further ingrained upon my consciousness why we need to end corporate personhood for ever.
I landed this tidbit:
New Orleans, La. – Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) announced today it has selected Enexus Energy Corporation as the new name of the independent, publicly traded nuclear power company it plans to spin off later this year, and EquaGen L.L.C. as the name of the new joint venture Entergy and Enexus will co-own and which will operate the six nuclear reactors to be spun off.
(Louisiana Entergy press release, 4/25/08)
Yeah, dated and now without much relevance beyond lessons learned, BUT there certainly are lessons to be learned.
Interesting that Entergy was going to turn the old and breaking down nuclear plants over to Enexus, and then Entergy and Enexus would co-own yet a third corporation that would be actually running the nuke plants.
So Entergy would make money by selling the aged, breaking down plants to a highly leveraged (ie. totally in debt) corporation of Entergy’s creation, and Entergy would also continue to profit directly from those same plants by co-owning another corporation of Entergy’s creation … such other corporation being the operator of the aged, breaking down plants that Entergy sold to the highly leveraged corporation of Entergy’s creation!
Who said money can’t be fun?
All this on top of other apparent shenanigans: this post leads the way to … (I’ve taken the liberty of copying my own post from another thread verbatim below.)
One of the ways the Wall Street banker clique was able to game their books so we would all be convinced they were fiscally sound and prudent was to engage in short term trades. The process involved Wall Street Banker A borrowing money from Wall Street Banker B, and A would use their financial instruments commonly known as credit default options (CDOs) for collateral. Wall Street Banker A would then put all the borrowed cash on it’s books as an asset, A’s books would be gone over and A would look solid as hell.
Once A had been given a AAA rating A would return the cash to B and replace the asset cash with the known shaky and possibly negative value of the CDOs.
Now back to Julie’s third link above:
In the wake of the Vermont Senate’s decision on Wednesday to shut down an Entergy Corp.-owned nuclear plant, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is questioning the company’s recent transfer of $1.3 billion from its parent company that oversees operations in Mississippi to its troubled nuclear program.
. . .
Entergy Corp., in its 4th Quarter 2009 Earnings Report, noted that the nuclear side of the company had received $1.3 billion from the utility that provides service to Mississippi taxpayers.
“My translation of the (transfer) means that the regulated utilities like Entergy Mississippi, which are subsidiaries of Entergy Corp., put $1.3 billion less in their pockets in 2009,” General Hood stated in a letter to Vermont Attorney General William H. Sorrell. “One of my claims in Mississippi is that Entergy Corp. has wrongfully transferred money from the regulated utilities to Entergy’s Nuclear businesses and that money should be returned to Mississippi ratepayers.”
(MS Attorney General Jim Hood continues to hound Entergy for money, WPMP, 02/26/10)
I’m wondering if this wasn’t an attempt to shore up the appearance of financial health for Louisiana Entergy’s nuclear division prior to that massive spin off they had been proposing. Once the spin off was created the money would of course have to be returned to Louisiana Entergy’s regulated Mississippi divisions … leaving a huge financial hole in the business plan that various state regulators would have already approved.
Let your imagination run from here ……….