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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick hastily convened a session of the Texas Senate on Monday as members suspended their own rules and took highly unusual steps to try to push through a bill that would force the state’s utility regulator to reverse billions of dollars in charges for wholesale electricity during last month's winter storm.
Senate Bill 2142, sponsored by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, had not even been filed when the day started Monday — and the full Senate hadn’t been scheduled to convene. But the bill was quickly read on the Senate floor and referred to the Senate Jurisprudence Committee for a hearing on Monday morning. With no questions from members and no public comment, the bill passed out of the committee in a matter of minutes by a vote of 3-1. State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, was the lone no vote in the committee meeting.
The full Senate planned to reconvene midday Monday, when it would have the opportunity to approve the bill.
The bill states that the Texas Public Utility Commission “has all necessary authority” to order the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to reprice billions in charges after the state’s power grid operator imposed a cap on electricity prices during the winter storm. The measure says the PUC “shall” order ERCOT to correct the pricing and gives the PUC a deadline of March 20 to act.
The move is the latest escalation in a growing divide between Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott on the pricing issue and the leadership of the PUC. Patrick and most senators believe the prices should retroactively be brought down. PUC and ERCOT leaders say the prices were intentionally left high to incentivize generators to send power during widespread outages. The PUC’s chair has said he doesn’t have authority to retroactively change the market price and has warned of unforeseen consequences of meddling in an electricity market that has already been settled.
Abbott had previously named an investigation into “billing errors” as an emergency item for the Legislature. An independent market monitor estimated that ERCOT overbilled power companies by $16 billion dollars, but the PUC refused to order ERCOT to adjust prices. The watchdog later revised its estimate of the overcharges to $4.2 billion, but that did not dampen Patrick’s wrath.
The PUC’s sole serving member, Arthur D’Andrea, told the state Senate last week that he does not have the authority to retroactively adjust prices. The other two spots on the PUC are vacant because their prior occupants resigned after the winter storm. Patrick has also called on D’Andrea to step down, or for Abbott to remove him.
Abbott has continued to stand behind D’Andrea, writing in a Friday letter to Patrick that “the only entity that can authorize the solution you want is the legislature itself.”
This developing story will be updated soon.