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

Since last month’s winter weather disaster, Gov. Greg Abbott has struggled to blame the state’s electricity grid operator squarely – despite being overseen by the Public Utilities Commission appointed by Abbott.

But as state lawmakers deepen their response to the crisis, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is making it increasingly difficult to look away from the commission, shining the spotlight on Abbott’s people and their decisions.

Last week Patrick called for the resignation of then PUC chairman DeAnn Walker – and hours later she called for resigning. Then, after a regulatory oversight body told the commission earlier this week that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas overcharged electricity providers by $ 16 billion during the storm, Patrick asked the PUC to reduce retroactively the costs – and Abbott saw it as an emergency item for the legislative session. the next day.

The watchdog later revised his estimate of the extra costs to $ 4.2 billion, but that didn’t dampen Patrick’s anger. The Lieutenant Governor’s attention to the PUC took its most dramatic turn yet Thursday night when he showed up to a state Senate committee hearing to personally toast Arthur D’Andrea , the new commission chairman hired by Abbott – and the only member left.

Finally, Patrick ended the week with his most direct challenge at Abbott. In a Friday night statement, Patrick called on Abbott to “intercede” and replace D’Andrea, challenging the governor to drop his 9-day person who previously worked as Abbott’s deputy general counsel.

Abbott quickly pushed Patrick away.

Even before Patrick’s statement, Capitol observers said they remember nothing like the Patrick-D’Andrea showdown in recent memory.

“It is very unusual, and I have never seen a lieutenant governor come and sit and participate in a hearing as if he is a senator – and also address someone in that manner in a public manner. – if he didn’t mean to. pressure him to resign, ”said Sandie Haverlah, a lobbyist for nonprofits. “It’s clearly an affront to the governor because D’Andrea is serving the governor’s will.

Asked before Patrick’s statement on Friday whether Abbott remains confident in D’Andrea’s ability to chair the PUC, Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze replied, “Absolutely. And in a letter released after Patrick called for D’Andrea’s ouster, Abbott told Patrick he agreed with D’Andrea “on his inability to take the action you requested,” said himself. referring to the price correction sought.

Abbott has been reluctant to blame the PUC, which regulates the state’s electricity, water and telecommunications utilities, since the early days of the storm, choosing instead to excite the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. When asked at a Feb. 18 press conference if he was responsible for the crisis, given his office’s relationship with the PUC, Abbott stayed focused on ERCOT, saying, “I’m taking responsibility for the current status of ERCOT. “

“It’s not a word I would normally use to describe Dan Patrick, but I think he’s always been a bit more circumspect, especially when it comes to ERCOT,” said Adrian Shelley, group’s Texas director. Public Citizen Consumer Rights Advocate. “Abbott came to ERCOT for cheap photos straight away.”

What drives the dynamic is the source of the growing speculation in Austin. There is a political backdrop: Patrick has never been able to completely rule out rumors that he would be interested in the governor’s office, although he insisted he would never run. against Abbott and has repeatedly said he plans to run for a third term as lieutenant governor in 2022.

As part of this session, there was a noticeable re-emergence for Patrick, who kept an unusually low profile in the first few weeks. That started to change in early February, when he fought to play the national anthem in professional sports matches and prepared to release a list of legislative priorities.

Then came the storm, which left millions of Texans in the cold and dark, raised uncomfortable questions about the state’s electricity grid and blurred the Capitol agenda.

Patrick said the crisis made him wait a few days to release his priorities so that he could readjust them to reflect the newly pressing issues. Its list of 31 priorities was eventually overcome by the “ERCOT reform” and “stability of the electricity grid”, coming in second and third place respectively – just behind the essential budget.

But things changed again for Patrick after Walker and outgoing ERCOT CEO Bill Magness appeared before House of Commons and Senate committees in late February. The lieutenant governor criticized their performance in a lengthy statement and called on them to resign, easily becoming the top-ranking elected official to start expanding the post-storm blame game at the PUC.

At the end of the day, Walker had submitted his letter of resignation, effective immediately.

Abbott had previously called on ERCOT leaders to resign 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 in the State of Texas.”

Patrick further increased the pressure on the PUC on Monday, when he called on ERCOT and the commission to retroactively reduce the market price of electricity during the week of blackouts. The next day, Patrick secured the reinforcement of 28 of the 31 senators in the Legislative Assembly, who sent a letter to D’Andrea – whom Abbott had just appointed to replace Walker as president of the PUC – urging him “in the strongest possible terms to immediately correct billing errors. . “

D’Andrea and the PUC refused to do so, citing the unintended consequences of interference in an already settled electricity market. D’Andrea held onto that view firmly as Patrick questioned him for nearly half an hour on Thursday night, claiming D’Andrea told him otherwise in a recent phone call.

In his statement on Friday night, Patrick called on Abbott to “replace Mr. D’Andrea at the PUC when he takes up the other two vacancies.”

“Mr. D’Andrea’s job requires both professional skill and honesty and he showed little either way in yesterday’s hearings,” said Patrick. “I believe the Most Texans who watched the Senate case law hearing would conclude that D’Andrea should not have full authority over ERCOT or be part of the solution going forward. “

Within an hour of Patrick’s statement, Abbott’s office released the letter to the Lieutenant Governor. In the letter, Abbott cited his past experience as a state Supreme Court justice and attorney general to support D’Andrea, and he told Patrick that the governor “does not have independent authority to achieve the goals you are looking for. “

“The only entity that can authorize the solution you want is the legislature itself,” Abbott wrote. “This is why I have made this question an urgent point that the legislator must examine this session.

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

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

House lawmakers, meanwhile, have taken what they see as a more deliberative approach, with some pledging to “know all the facts” before taking action on the matter.

In a House State Affairs committee hearing Thursday, State Representative Chris Paddie, a Republican Marshall who chairs the committee, appeared to take a hit on the letter from 28 members of the Senate asking for D’Andrea to quash the charges.

“Before we take a stand or any of us send you individually, sir, a letter or whatever,” Paddie told D’Andrea, “I’m going to be really sure when I sign my name off. on something that I have all the facts on, and that is correct. “

After the hearing, House Speaker Dade Phelan R-Beaumont said in a statement that he appreciated the committee for its “deliberative consideration” of the matter and looked forward to another hearing this week. next on the conversation.

And over the past week, Phelan pitched the idea of ​​legislation that would create a loan fund by taking money out of the state savings account, also known as a fund for people. rainy days. This new fund could help electricity and natural gas producers strengthen their facilities against future cold weather events.

The proposal, filed on Friday by State Representative Dan Huberty, R-Houston, is modeled on the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas, known as SWIFT, which contributed to fuel the construction of tens of billions of dollars in new water projects in recent years. .

In the meantime, it seems inevitable that the heat over the PUC will not recede, despite Abbott’s early efforts to protect his appointees from the storm’s fallout.

“I think it would be difficult to come to any other conclusion,” said Doug Lewin, climate and energy consultant. “It’s clear Abbott jumped in to say it was [ERCOT], and I think… Patrick drummed that it’s ERCOT and the PUC and really put the emphasis on the PUC.

Cassi Pollock contributed reporting.