Leading Off (3/17/21)
The last Public Utilities Commissioner resigns, Plano ISD mum on response to racist attack, and migrant teens arrive at the Convention Center
By
Peter Simek
Published in
FrontBurner
March 17, 2021
7:33 am
Last Public Utilities Commissioner Resigns Amidst Storm Scandal. The last of Gov. Greg Abbott’s three appointees to the PUC resigned a week after
Texas Monthly disclosed a recording of the commissioner assuring investors he would use “the weight of the commission” to resist an independent market monitor’s finding that the state should return billions to struggling utilities that were forced to buy wholesale electricity at sky high prices during the storm. Commissioner Arthur D’Andrea, a longtime Abbott aide, was speaking with Bank of America Securities, which made hundreds of millions of dollars due to volatile price fluctuations during the winter storm. House Speaker Dade Phelan also came out against repricing the $16 billion after the Senate passed a bill Monday that would mandate the now member-less PUC to reverse the charges.