Enron boss says do not blame him for energy crisis

"Never again can we allow out-of-state profiteers to hold Californians hostage," Davis warned in his State of the State address.

More recently, however, Davis called Lay to discuss negotiations as the state looks to buy power transmission lines from troubled utilities.

"I told him we couldn't support it," Lay told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview at his Houston office. "It will lead to an even less efficient transmission grid and, longer term, it could make things worse."

Lay is not just any private-sector energy czar -- Enron Corp. is the world's largest energy trader and Lay is a close friend of President George Bush. Lay and his corporation have donated more than $500,000 to Bush's various political campaigns in recent years and he offered Bush use of Enron's private jet during the presidential race.

But Lay said it's economics, not politics, that matter in California's energy crisis. And he thinks it unfair that Davis has blamed out-of-state energy brokers for the protracted problems. "We didn't make the rules in California," Lay said. "We had nothing to do with creating the problem."

Enron's stock jumped 86 percent in 2000 and its revenues more than doubled to $101 billion. Lay, 58, was compensated accordingly -- he received nearly $16 million in stock and cash beyond his $1.3 million salary last year, compared with less than $4 million in bonuses in 1999.

Lay refused to say how much Enron has made off California's crisis, though he conceded the profit was "not inconsequential." But he rejected suggestions that Enron has manipulated prices.<