Opinion It’s time for Texas to finally retire the Railroad Commission and PUC to create an energy agency A combined power and fossil fuel regulatory agency might have avoided the power outages. By Chrysta Castañeda . No one will soon forget that Texas froze last month, vast portions of the state’s electric grid went dark, and millions of Texans lacked heat and running water for days. Many Texans died. Looking for answers, the Texas Legislature convened hearings for two long days. They summoned a dozen or more witnesses who sit atop corporate and government ladders with responsibility for the electric grid, most of whom accepted some shared responsibility for the failures.