“Traders Gone Wild!” would be an apt name for the recorded conversations between scheming Enron energy traders as Californians suffered through rolling blackouts and power prices spiked up and down the West Coast in 2000 and 2001.

The telephone recordings were obtained by the Snohomish Public Utility District, which is in litigation with Enron. They reveal foul-mouthed traders rejoicing in the misery of others as they raked in millions from their market manipulation schemes.

“Burn, baby, burn,” shouts one trader as a transmission line is engulfed by wildfire, which causes a power outage. In other recordings, traders discuss stealing from “Grandma Millie,” with such tactics as jamming transmission lines, avoiding price caps and taking power plants offline.

Funny stuff. Never mind that people died of heat stress and that the high cost of power killed businesses and cost untold workers their jobs. Market manipulation also caused utilities to lock into long-term power contracts at high rates, which has meant higher power bills for customers.

Some of the architects of this chicanery are heading for trial this week in Portland. A fitting punishment would be long stays in prison cells, with no air conditioning.

The state of California itself set the stage for the crisis by keeping energy prices artificially low and failing to assure adequate power generation. But the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for overseeing the nation’s wholesale energy market, napped through this sad episode. It was slow to accept that the deregulation scheme hadn’t worked.

The agency has reluctantly determined that Enron and other energy companies were guilty of market manipulation. FERC plans to disburse $3 billion to California utilities that were the victims of scams, but the agency has invoked technicalities to prevent other states from receiving relief.

Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., plans to introduce an amendment to the energy bill that would allow non-California utilities to be eligible. He also wants to make it easier for utilities to sever power contracts with companies that have manipulated markets.

FERC should’ve already done that, and its inaction just gives Northwest politicians another reason to be wary of the regulatory body. Regional leaders are already fighting a one-size-fits-all FERC proposal, where power could be more readily traded from region to region.

FERC should be chastened by what happened to the West Coast when free-market cowboys took the reins of the energy system and purposely drove it into the ground. Instead of pushing its standard market design, it first needs to show that it’s willing to play sheriff when laws are broken.

In the meantime, the Northwest is right to keep watching the watchdog as it safeguards its power supply.