Their accusations were similar to practices outlined in internal Enron memos released last month that showed how traders manipulated the California power market.

Today, he said one tactic described in the Enron memos appeared to be "deliberate misrepresentation of information; that might be a longer way of saying fraud."

First there were those Enron memos.

On Dec. 5, 2000, one Enron memo noted, "Traders could buy power at $250 and sell it for $1,200."

Those contracts were infected by the high spot market prices, and now the Enron memos show that the spot market itself was tainted.

But traders simply sold power to neighboring states without caps, a strategy detailed in the Enron memos.

But the Enron memos seem to have stirred doubts once more about the integrity and longevity of the industry - and the way energy is traded.

Still, people pursuing claims against the power companies greeted the Enron memos as hard, written evidence of the circumstantial suspicions that had guided their lawsuits for months.

The significance of the "smoking gun" Enron memos that came to light a few days ago is that they show exactly how swell those power executives really were.

Other trading companies were quick to declare publicly last week that they never engage in the kinds of activities described in the Enron memos.