DeAnn Walker, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission, resigns

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The president of the Texas Public Utilities Commission, the agency that regulates the state’s electricity, telecommunications and water and sewer services, resigned Monday, according to a resignation letter filed with the Texas Tribune.

The commission appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott received public criticism after the Texas power crisis, which left millions in the dark for days and claimed the lives of dozens.

On Monday, Gov. Dan Patrick demanded the resignation of PUC President DeAnn Walker and Texas Electric Reliability Council CEO Bill Magness.

The PUC is responsible for overseeing the Texas Electric Reliability Council or ERCOT, a nonprofit that manages and operates the power grid that covers much of the state.

Lawmakers began asking commissioners to resign on Thursday after hearing the testimony of Walker, who took little responsibility for the crisis during House and Senate committee hearings on power outages. Representative Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, wrote on Twitter that she has “zero confidence” in her after Thursday’s hearings and that she “has” to resign.

Walker suffered fire during interrogations for not doing more to prevent the crisis from occurring. Lawmakers investigated how much information he had on whether the state’s electricity system could withstand winter storms and wondered why he did not raise concerns about the possibility of earlier shutdowns.

Walker, during his testimony to lawmakers last week, largely diverted blame from ERCOT and Magness, who testified before state senators Thursday before Walker did so.

“You know, there are a lot of things that Bill said about our authority over them, that I just don’t agree with that being really real life,” Walker told lawmakers.

But lawmakers declined to lead the regulatory agency with oversight of the electricity sector: “When you say you have no authority,” said State Sen. John Whitmire of D-Houston, “I’m considering you a pretty powerful person.” .

Walker said the legislation “has not received the legal authority to demand winter weathering” in the commission, one of the main concerns after the precipitation of the power crisis by power plants that went offline. Many power generators are not built to withstand extreme cold temperatures in Texas.

Walker diverted the blame to ERCOT, the entity that oversees his agency, and added over the winter: “It costs a lot of money.”

In his resignation letter to Governor Abbott, Walker said he was resigning because he believed it was in the best interest of the state. He also pushed back criticism that he was not responsible for the interruptions.

“I testified last Thursday in the Senate and the House and accepted my role in the situation,” Walker wrote.

He continued to call on others, including the Railway Commission, ERCOT, the legislature, gas companies, power generators and other industry agents to “come forward” to acknowledge how their actions contributed to the crisis. of energy, all of them, he wrote, “He had a responsibility to anticipate what might happen and did not take the necessary steps over the last ten years to address issues that each of them might have addressed.”

Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said in a statement that the governor thanks Walker for his service to the state.

“Our goal is to continue working in collaboration with the legislature on reforms to our power system and we look forward to adopting lasting and meaningful solutions to ensure that these tragic events never happen again,” Eze said in a statement.

Walker was appointed to that position by Abbott in 2017 for a term that would have expired in September. Previously, she was an Abbott policy advisor in regulated industries and previously worked for CenterPoint Energy, a Houston-based electrical services company that moves energy to much of the Houston region as an associate general counsel. and director of regulatory affairs.