Continental bought the rights from Enron in a sale approved bythe court handling the massive Enron bankruptcy, but will not moveforward with development until it secures a user. "In the old dayseverybody was building merchant plants because there seemed to bean unlimited need for power," says the source at Continental. "Wewould need commitments."

The rights were bought from Enron subsidiary Longview EnergyDevelopment Project LLC, which optioned on 20 acres at the Port andsecured most of the required permits. The Enron subsidiary hadenvisioned the plant as an eventual 580-megawatt facility, but hadonly obtained approvals for a 290-megawatt facility, says thesource at Continental.

Enron was one of at least 10 Western U.S. power plants proposedduring the Northwest power crisis and then delayed or canceled inthe last year as energy prices fell back to Earth.