Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick focuses on PUC, testing Governor Greg Abbott

Since last month’s winter weather disaster, Gov. Greg Abbott has worked to fully blame the state’s power grid operator, even though he is overseen by Abbott’s Public Utility Commission.

But as state lawmakers deepen their response to the crisis, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick makes it increasingly difficult to look away from the commission, giving a strong focus on Abbott’s people and their decisions.

Last week, Patrick called for the resignation of the then PUC chair, DeAnn Walker, and hours later, he stopped being so. Then, after a regulatory watchdog informed the commission earlier this week that the Texas Electric Reliability Council had overburdened energy suppliers by $ 16 billion during the storm, Patrick demanded that the PUC reduce costs retroactively and Abbott considered it an emergency issue for the legislative session. the next day.

The watchdog later revised his estimate of overloads to $ 4.2 billion, but that didn’t dispel Patrick’s anger. The lieutenant governor’s attention to the PUC had its most dramatic turn on Thursday evening, when he appeared at a state Senate committee hearing to make a personal appeal to Arthur D’Andrea, the new committee chairman approved by Abbott and the only member left.

Finally, Patrick ended the week with his most direct challenge to Abbott. In a statement Friday night, Patrick called on Abbott to “intercede” and replace D’Andrea, daring with the governor to step down from his 9-day appointment that previously worked as Abbott’s deputy general counsel.

Abbott quickly rejected Patrick.

Even before Patrick’s statement, Capitol observers said they could not remember anything like Patrick-D’Andrea’s confrontation in recent memory.

“It’s very unusual and I’ve never seen a lieutenant governor come to sit and participate in a hearing as if he were a senator – and also address someone like that in public – if he doesn’t intend to put pressure on him to resign.” said Sandie Haverlah, a lobbyist for nonprofits. “This is clearly an affront to the governor because D’Andrea serves the will of the governor.”

Asked before Patrick’s statement on Friday, if Abbott continues to rely on D’Andrea’s ability to chair the PUC, Abbott’s spokeswoman Renae Eze replied, “Absolutely.” And in a letter published after Patrick called for D’Andrea’s removal, Abbott told Patrick that he agreed with D’Andrea “about his inability to take the action you requested,” referring to to the requested price correction.

Abbott has been reluctant to blame the PUC, which regulates state electricity, water and telecommunications services, since the early days of the storm, rather than choosing the Texas Electrical Reliability Council. Asked at a Feb. 18 press conference about whether he had any responsibility for the crisis, given his office’s relationship with the PUC, Abbott kept the focus on ERCOT, saying, “I’m taking responsibility for the current state. of ERCOT “.

“That’s not a word I would normally use to describe Dan Patrick, but I think he was always a little more cautious, especially when it came to ERCOT,” said Adrian Shelley, Texas director of the consumer rights group Public Citizen . “Abbott was immediately out throwing cheap against ERCOT.”

What drives the dynamics is the source of growing speculation in Austin. There is a political background: Patrick has not been able to completely dispel rumors that interest him in the governor’s office, despite insisting that he would never run against Abbott and has repeatedly said he plans to run for a third term as lieutenant. of government in 2022.

In the context of this session, it has been a notable re-emergence for Patrick, who kept an unusually low profile for the first few weeks. That began to change in early February, when he chose to play the national anthem in professional sports games and made preparations to publish a list of legislative priorities.

Then came the storm, which left millions of jeans in the cold and darkness, raised awkward questions about the state’s power grid and upset the agenda at the Capitol.

Patrick said the crisis prompted him to stop posting his priorities for a few days so he could readjust them to reflect urgent issues. Its list of 31 priorities ended up being surpassed by the “ERCOT reform” and the “stability of the electricity grid”, which came in second and third place, respectively, just after the mandatory budget.

But things changed even more for Patrick after Walker and outgoing CEO ERCOT Bill Magness appeared before state House and Senate committees in late February. The lieutenant governor criticized his actions in a lengthy statement and asked them to resign, easily becoming the highest-ranking elected official to begin expanding the post-storm guilt game in the PUC.

By the end of the day, Walker had filed his letter of resignation, effective immediately.

Abbott had already called for the resignation of ERCOT leaders, but had said nothing about the PUC. After Walker announced his resignation, Abbott’s office offered a statement thanking Walker for “his years of service to the State of Texas.”

Patrick stepped up pressure on the PUC on Monday, when he asked ERCOT and the commission to retroactively reduce the energy market price during the week of blackouts. The next day, Patrick obtained a backup of 28 of the 31 senators in the legislature, who sent a letter to D’Andrea, whom Abbott had just appointed to replace Walker as president of the PUC, urging him to ” the strongest possible terms to correct billing errors immediately “. “.

D’Andrea and the PUC have declined to do so, citing unforeseen consequences of meddling in an electricity market that has already been resolved. D’Andrea stood firm in this view as Patrick interrogated him for nearly half an hour on Thursday evening, claiming that D’Andrea had told him otherwise in a recent phone call.

In his statement Friday evening, Patrick asked Abbott to “replace Mr. D’Andrea in the PUC when he fills the other two vacancies there.”

“Mr. Andrea’s position requires professional competence and honesty and yesterday she proved little of both in hearings, “Patrick said.” I think most of the Texans who saw the Senate Jurisprudence hearing would conclude that D’Andrea it should not have full authority over ERCOT or be part of the solution to move forward. “

Less than an hour after Patrick’s statement, Abbott’s office issued the letter to the lieutenant governor. In the letter, Abbott invoked his past experience as a state Supreme Court and Attorney General justice to support D’Andrea, and told Patrick that the governor “has no independent authority to achieve the goals he seeks.” .

“The only entity that can authorize the solution you want is the legislature itself,” Abbott wrote. “That’s why I made this issue an emergency issue for the legislature to consider this session.”

Not all senators are with Patrick, at least when it comes to price correction. The three senators who did not sign the letter were Mr. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe; Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin; and Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills. Hancock told The Dallas Morning News that he wanted to remain neutral in the debate because he chairs the Senate Trade and Commerce Committee, which has held chamber hearings after the storm.

Creighton’s office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

House lawmakers, meanwhile, have taken what they consider a more deliberate approach, with some commitments to “having all the facts” before taking action on the issue.

During a House State Affairs Committee hearing Thursday, state Rep. Chris Paddie, a Marshall Republican who chairs the committee, appeared to take a look at the letter from 28 members of the House. Senate asking D’Andrea to reverse the charges.

“Before you take a position or any of us we send you individually, sir, a letter or whatever,” Paddie told D’Andrea, “I’ll be pretty sure when I sign my name on something I have done and that is exact “.

After the hearing, House Speaker Dade Phelan R-Beaumont said in a statement that he thanked the committee for its “deliberative examination” of the issue and said he expected another hearing next week on the conversation. .

And over the past week, Phelan came up with the idea of ​​legislation that would allow the creation of a loan fund by raising money from the state savings account, which is also known as a fund for rainy days. This new fund could help electricity and natural gas producers strengthen facilities against future cold weather events.

The proposal, presented Friday by R-Houston State Representative Dan Huberty, is based on the Texas State Water Implementation Fund model, known as SWIFT, which has helped fuel the construction of tens of thousands of millions of dollars in new water projects in recent years. .

Meanwhile, it seems inevitable that the heat of the PUC will not recede, despite Abbott’s initial efforts to protect his appointees from the consequences of the storm.

“I think it would be hard to come to any other conclusion,” said Doug Lewin, a climate and energy consultant. “Clearly, Abbott jumped in and said yes [ERCOT], and I think … Patrick has been beating the drum that is ERCOT and the PUC and he has really put an emphasis on the PUC. “

Cassi Pollock contributed to the reports.