Lt. Governor Dan Patrick on Thursday called a news conference to make a pitch to Governor Abbott to take action to retroactively lower the high energy rate set by The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) during the storm and record setting cold spell last month.
Calling it a "mistake" by ERCOT to artificially keep the peak $9000/megawatt hour rate in place on February 18 and 19, Patrick said Governor Abbott can issue an executive order to lower it to market value and prevent billions of dollars in overcharges. "Under an emergency declaration the Governor has extraordinary powers. He is the Commander in Chief. He is the ruler of all of the agencies. He can make this corrective action if he so chooses."
The Texas Senate, led by Patrick, passed legislation on Monday that would have ordered the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to direct ERCOT to lower the peak energy rate for the 32 hours in question. On Tuesday Texas State House Speaker Dade Phelan rejected that bill.
Phelan disagreed with the Senate's assertion that mistakes were made by ERCOT in setting the price. Phelan released a statement saying that ERCOT's decision wasn't an error and it saved lives. He went on to say that re-pricing based on a disagreement with PUC and ERCOT's management decision is "an extraordinary government intervention into the free market".
In Thursday's news conference Patrick added that Governor Abbott did have options other than issuing an executive order. "If ERCOT provides notice to the market participants within 30 days that prices are under investigation, that preserves the ability of ERCOT to continue reviewing the prices." This would allow more time for the debate over whether the rates should be changed. According to Patrick a decision on the issue needs to be made before the deadline this weekend.
