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Richard Kinder is an ex-president of Enron Corp. (See Ken Lay), which was George W. Bush’s top career patron in 2000, according to the Center for Public Integrity. The 2002 Enron book Pipe Dreams depicts Richard Kinder as a no-nonsense, hard-assets guy whose 1996 resignation marked the beginning of Enron’s fraudulent end. Kinder and ex-Enron pipeline executive Bill Morgan bought out Enron Liquids Pipeline in 1997 and formed Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and its parent company: Kinder Morgan, Inc. Kinder Morgan is one of the country’s largest gas pipeline interests, worth approximately $10 billion. A 2003 Kinder Morgan pipeline failure caused gasoline shortages in Phoenix after spilling an estimated 16,000 gallons near Tucson. Arizona environmental officials accused the company of contaminating the area’s groundwater in November 2003. “We narrowly averted a disaster,” said Department of Environmental Quality Director Steve Owens, citing a spray of thousands of gallons of flammable gas in a residential neighborhood. “We need to make sure we never again have to rely on luck regarding this pipeline.” Then-Governor George Bush appointed Kinder to his 1996 Citizen’s Committee on Property Tax Relief along with fellow Pioneers John Avila and Wales Madden. Bush directed the panel--dominated by corporate executives--to explore replacing school property taxes with a gross-receipts or a value-added tax (Bush ruled out consideration of a state income tax). The initiative failed after special interests organized against both options. President-Elect Bush appointed Kinder to his Energy Department Transition Team in late 2000. Kinder’s estimated worth of $1.4 billion ranked him No. 162 in the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans in 2003. Nancy Kinder, who also once worked at Enron, is a frequent volunteer fundraiser for charitable causes.
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Of Special Interest
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| Profile last updated
May 25, 2004
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