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Saturday
Jun 23 2001
| Updated
0010 hrs IST
1340 EST
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Enron CEO gets pie in the face from a protester
SAN FRANCISCO
A TEXAS energy executive got more than boos and jeers before starting a speech on California's energy crisis -- he got a pie in the face.
Jeffrey Skilling, chief executive of Houston-based Enron, was grazed by a sloppy pie with red filled heaved by activist Francine Cavanaugh at the beginning of his speech at the Commonwealth Club of California.
Skilling graciously wiped the pie from his head and went on with his speech as San Francisco police escorted Cavanaugh from the meeting. She was detained, but not arrested.
Medea Benjamin, US Senate candidate and consumer activist, said the woman was from an international pie-throwing group called the Biotic Baking Brigade. A call to the Brigade was not answered.
The group has thrown pies at several notable figures. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was hit with a cream pie in Brussels in 1998 and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown got three pies in 1999.
Enron has come under fire after accusations from Gov Gray Davis and state officials that it and other energy companies raised electricity prices by holding back supply.
Enron has denied such claims, and joined other power producers in arguing that the state and utilities owes them billions in unpaid bills.
Davis acknowledged that Pacific Gas & Electric, which has declared bankruptcy, and Southern California Edison together still owe generators such as Enron, Duke Energy, Mirant and Reliant Energy about $2.5 billion for past electricity sales.
State officials countered that wholesalers charged as much as $9 billion in illegal overcharges dating back to May 2000. The feuding groups are to meet in a single room next week under a federal order to try and work out agreements that could determine how billions of dollars will be divided. (AP)
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