Over in Fort Worth, the regulators in the regional office of the S.E.C. watched the developments with amazement.
Still, regulators and utilities in other states are closely watching the experiment here.
Enron's collapse has reignited the debate about how closely Congress and regulators should watch the nation's recently deregulated electricity markets.
Along with clients, regulators in several states are watching and debating various possible steps in the wake of the criminal charge announced on Thursday.
In the meantime, analysts and regulators are watching how the two industries proceed with bundling services like telephone, Internet and even television programming.
When they deregulated the banking industry, the regulators didn't watch what was going on and a lot of questionable people entered the industry.
We are trying to do that now in the hope that the regulators will watch the gamblers.
And Charles A. Bowsher, the Comptroller General and head of the G.A.O., said in a recent interview: "Congress and the regulators just aren't watching the situation closely enough.
Mr. Hove of the F.D.I.C. said that while the regulators were closely watching the exposure of banks to swings in interest rates, he believed the industry was in no immediate danger.
