Second Texas Public Utility Commission Exits in Reuters Power Outage Fallout

Houston (Reuters)-A second member of the regulator overseeing Texas utilities resigned on Monday as the political collapse over the weather crisis in Texas’s electricity market continued.

The Public Utility Commission in Texas said in a statement that Sherry Botkin had resigned immediately. Her departure came a week after PUC Chairman De Ann Walker resigned in criticism of the board’s response to a fatal power outage during the mid-February freeze.

Electricity and prices soared as air masses in the Arctic brought sub-zero temperatures, killed dozens of people, and threatened many of the electricity markets with a serious financial crisis. A company has filed for bankruptcy and the removal of a dozen faces from the state grid due to default on electricity payments.

The state’s electricity industry has raised prices at a one-time cost of $ 47 billion after the Commission and grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), has raised prices to induce additional electricity to generators. Facing

The political fire over the outage worsened last week as an independent state market consultant said some accusations were mistakenly filed and should be rolled back.

Botkin was appointed to the Commission by Governor Greg Abbott in 2018. She was an ERCOT spokeswoman before joining the committee. Under state law, the rest of the Commissioner, Arthur D’Andrea, can act on the proposal before the PUC.

A PUC spokesman did not immediately respond to the request for comment. I couldn’t ask Botkin for comment.