In Business This Week

ENRON RETREATS FROM CALIFORNIA

LIGHTS OUT. ENRON IS PULLING BACK from an aggressive push into U.S. retail electricity and natural-gas markets that are deregulating. After spending about $250 apiece for the 30,000 California residents it signed, the Houston energy company is suspending efforts to recruit residential customers. Californians getting state-mandated rate cuts for staying with their suppliers had limited interest in new energy sellers, a spokesman says. Enron also plans to sell the generating capacity it acquired over the California border just one year ago with its $2 billion purchase of Portland General Electric.EDITED BY KELLEY HOLLAND