She said Hogan and Skilling actually had opposing viewpoints on the debate over electricity deregulation.

“The main poles in the California debate were Bill Hogan and Jeff Skilling,” said Brown. “It was almost legendary the clashes they had on the subject, so to suggest that somehow Bill was in cahoots with Enron is a laughable position.”

Brown said that Skilling eventually became so angry with Hogan that he pulled Enron out of HEPG and did not rejoin until about two years ago.

Brown also said that reports authored by Hogan also did not aim to cover up any problems with California’s deregulated market—as HarvardWatch’s report claimed.

According to Brown, Hogan has argued exactly the opposite.

“He argued that the market was not sufficiently transparent” Brown said.

“This report is breathtakingly dishonest or breathtakingly incompetent...or both.”

—Staff writer Joseph P. Flood can be reached at flood@fas.harvard.edu.