Years before headline-grabbing accounting schemes, document shredding, executive bonus scandals and employee losses, Enron began as a small oil and gas pipeline company in Texas. Begun in 1985, it profited by promising to deliver gas and oil to a particular utility or business at a fixed future date and at a fixed price. As the energy markets, and in particular the electrical power markets, were deregulated, Enron's business expanded into brokering and trading electricity and other energy commodities. The deregulation of these markets was a key Enron strategy as it invested time and money in lobbying Congress and state legislatures for access to what traditionally had been publicly provided utility markets. Some of Enron's top executives became frequently named corporate political patrons of the Republican Party and the campaigns of George W. Bush and other elected officials. As Enron's business grew, it became a broker, a middleman, which made money from the difference between energy commodity sales and purchase prices. The actual prices Enron paid for and sold its commodities at were kept secret. As Enron began to face competition from other energy commodity traders, the business arrangements became more a
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