Texas Public Utility Commission Chairman DeAnn Walker resigns

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The chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission, the agency that regulates the state’s electricity, telecommunications, water, and sewage facilities, resigned Monday, according to a letter of resignation to the Texas Tribune.

The commission appointed by Governor Greg Abbott came under public criticism in the wake of the Texas power crisis that left millions in darkness for days and claimed the lives of dozens of people.

On Monday, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick called on PUC Chairman DeAnn Walker and Bill Magness, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, to step down.

Walker earned a salary of $ 201,000 as of February 1.

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

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

Walker came under fire during the interrogation for not doing more to prevent the crisis. Lawmakers examined how much information she had about whether the state’s electricity system could withstand winter storms, and wondered why she had not previously expressed concerns about the possibility of outages.

Walker, during her testimony to lawmakers last week, largely blamed ERCOT and Magness, who testified to state senators on Thursday before Walker did.

“You know, there are a lot of things that Bill said about our authority over them, but I just don’t agree that it is so in real life,” Walker told lawmakers.

But lawmakers argued that she is leading the regulator in overseeing the energy sector: “If you say you have no authority,” said Senator John Whitmire, D-Houston, powerful person. “

Walker said the commission “has not been given legal power from the legislature to require winter weathering,” a first concern after the power crisis was triggered by power plants going down. Many power generators are not built to withstand extreme cold weather temperatures in Texas.

Walker put the blame on ERCOT, the entity that oversees its agency, adding, “It costs a lot of money.”

In her letter of resignation to Governor Abbott, Walker said she resigned because she believed it was in the best interest of the state. She also pushed back the criticism that she took no responsibility for the outages.

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

She then called on others, including the Railroad Commission, ERCOT, the legislature, gas companies, electric generators and other industry players to “come forward” to recognize how their actions contributed to the power crisis – all of them, she wrote: “Had the responsibility to foresee what could have happened and has not taken the necessary steps over the past 10 years to address issues that any of them could have addressed.”

Renae Eze, a spokesman for Abbott, said in a statement that Governor thanked Walker for her service to the state.

“Our focus is to continue to work with the legislature to reform our energy system and we look forward to sustainable and meaningful solutions to ensure that these tragic events are never repeated,” Eze said in a statement.

Walker was appointed to the position by Abbott in 2017 for a term that would expire in September. Before that, she was Abbott’s policy advisor in regulated industries and before that she worked for CenterPoint Energy, a Houston-based electric utility that moves power to much of the Houston area, as an associate general counsel and director of regulatory affairs.

Lawmakers welcomed the dismissal on Monday. State Representative Rafael Anchía said in a statement that Texans deserved “nothing less” than her firing and that “Texans are still waiting for her apology.”