The Birth and Formation of EnronEnron Corporation was born during the recession that followed the oil and energy crises of the 1970s. The CEO of Houston Natural Gas Company (HNG ), Kenneth Lay, engineered a merger with Internorth Incorporated (Internorth) (Free, Macintosh, Stein, 2007, page 2), Internorth CEO Samuel Segner resigned six months after passing on the title and responsibilities of CEO to Kenneth Lay. Enteron was born shortly thereafter when the HNG/Internorth merger was first renamed Enteron, then quickly shortened to Enron in 1986. This newly formed company owned the second largest natural gas pipeline network in the United States, employing 15 000 workers and $12.1 billion in assets; However, this came with large debts, with a loss of $14 million for the first year. In the first years, the newly created company struggled as a traditional natural gas supplier in regulated energy markets. The U.S. government's change in policy regarding energy markets, with market deregulation being pushed through new policy, opened new opportunities for the struggling company and paved the way for its rise to power. During the 1980s, U.S. government policies such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Orders 436 and 636, alongside the Natural Gas Wellhead Control Act of 1989 (NBGWDA), deregulated the markets in which Enron operated, eliminating the constraints placed on the markets by regulation to avoid a repeat of the economic problems of the energy crisis of previous decades. (The History of Regulator, 2004). As natural gas prices fell more than 50% following deregulation due to increased supplies, Enron began charging other companies for the use of its massive pipeline network (Culp and Hanke , 2003, page 8). .Star...... middle of paper ......2004). Transformational approach. In P. G. Northouse, Leadership Theory and Practice (pp. 169-201). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Pojman, L.P. (2006). Ethics: discovering good and evil. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Ruined by Enron. (2002). Revolutionary worker, #1136. Retrieved April 19, 2008, from http://revcom.us/a/v23/1130-39/1136/enron_workers.htm.Sarbanes-Oxley Act. (2008). Retrieved April 26, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act. Smith, C.R. (2002). Enron and Bill Clinton. Retrieved April 19, 2008 from http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002. The history of regulation. (2004). Retrieved April 19, 2008 from http://www.naturalgas.org/regulation/history.asp#dereg. Tyner, A., Krach, L. and Foth, L. (2007). A PowerPoint presentation on the theory of punctuated equilibrium. University of St. Thomas, EDLD 822: Policy Development.