SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Bankrupt energy company Enron Corp. has agreed to pay $47.5 million in a settlement that could reach $1.5 billion to resolve claims that it gouged California and other western states during the 2000-2001 energy crisis.

The settlement will end market manipulation and price gouging claims against the once high-flying Houston-based company, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said yesterday, but the exact amount could be considerably less than the settlement's face value.

The agreement requires approval by the bankruptcy court and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The final payment amounts will depend on what is left after Enron's secured creditors are repaid as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

In addition to the cash payment, Enron will provide California with an unsecured claim for $875 million. Oregon and Washington would be entitled to $22.5 million each from that unsecured settlement.

Unsecured claims are currently valued between 22 cents and 25 cents on the dollar, Lockyer said.

"We'll get some of it, we just don't know yet how far the assets of Enron will stretch to these multiple claims," Lockyer said yesterday. "We hope to recover as much as possible."

The settlement also calls for the company to pay a $600 million penalty to the three states. A penalty claim is one of the last to be paid under bankruptcy law, said Enron spokeswoman Jennifer Lowney, and may not be paid.

Still, Lockyer said the settlement "represents economic justice for Californians."

Lockyer has painted Enron as the mastermind of California's energy crisis, which was marked by blackouts and soaring consumer energy prices. He accused the company of using trading schemes to drive up the cost of electricity in the state's newly deregulated market.

"They were certainly the leader of the pack," he said. "They were the company that invented a lot of the market manipulation games that allowed this to happen."

Enron's interim CEO Stephen Cooper said in a statement that the settlement helps Enron move forward to resolve its bankruptcy "so that we can accelerate distributions to all other creditors."

About $65 billion in claims are awaiting settlement in Enron's bankruptcy case, company officials said. California's claims will be joining that long line.

California Sen. Joe Dunn, former chairman of a state legislative committee that investigated the energy crisis, said that given the company's precarious finances, the deal is probably the best the state could get. But he said the $1.5 billion settlement figure falls short of what Enron took during the energy crisis.

"I can't say that it is fair compensation to the state of California. It's not," Dunn said. "It's grossly unfair."