All in the family

So you've heard by now that BC Rail have leased/sold Vancouver Wharves and its terminal infrastructure to Kinder(Enron) Morgan(Enron).
Kevin Mahoney, BCRail President, burbled on about the rigour of the selection process and how a crown corporation selling off yet another one of our assets is a really good deal for us, like we were buying that, before he went right off the, uh, rails:

"Kinder Morgan's broad experience in environmental management of port facilities and commitment to environmental stewardship were key factors in this agreement."

Ross at Gazetteer has recent details of Kinder Morgan's "commitment to environmental stewardship", including some from just this last week, here : Kinder Geyser Surprise. And in his post below, B.C.'s New and Improved Kinder and Gentler Enron, Ross also provides a little refresher course in the management practices of Mr Kinder and Mr Morgan's former company.

Kinder Morgan previously bought BC Gas (renamed Terasen) in 2005 so now they control both the product and the distribution process. Nifty bit of privatization there.
Then on Aug 28, 2006, The Carlyle Group, yes that Carlyle Group, announced on their website that they, along with investment partners AIG and Riverstone Holdings, would be acquiring Kinder Morgan pending anti-trust clearance from the FTC. That clearance was granted on Jan 25, 2007.

But no worries. In a piece in The Republic of East Vancouver from June 2006, Kevin Potvin points out that Canada has been really well-represented at Carlyle :
Former ambassadors to the US Allan Gottlieb and Frank McKenna, PowerCorp's Paul Desmarais, Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, Bombadier CEO Laurent Beaudoin, Bank of Nova Scotia CEO Andre Bisson, Encana CEO David O'Brien, JRI CEO Hartley Richardson, and Bell Canada CEO Lynton Wilson.

Plus The Carlyle Group was started by a former Enron executive so it's really still all in the family.

The excuse for this mishmash of what is basically other people's pillaged posts is wanting to see them all in the same place. One I'm missing is Arundhati Roy's piece on how Enron pulled all the same crap in India years prior to launching their corporate assault on US citizens. Couldn't happen here though, right? I'll dig that one out tomorrow anyway. Just in case anyone's thinking three time's a charm.
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Dollars To Donuts of Mass Destruction

The private equity firm Carlyle Group, these guys, whose board has included the former prime ministers of UK, S Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand, plus some Saudi princes and Bushes Sr and Jr, and Colin Powell, is currently bidding to buy Dunkin' Donuts.

Ok, let's see, I'll have a dozen Bradley Fighting Vehicles, a half dozen mobile Howitzers, some hospitals and newspapers, and, oh yeah, throw in a few of those chocolate ones with the pink sprinkles on top to go.