In a rare move, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick Thursday afternoon joined a Senate Committee hearing to question Public Utility Commission (PUC) Chair Arthur D’Andrea about the energy rate hike that has led to billions of dollars in bills for energy companies.
The contentious exchange began to become somewhat heated when Patrick asked D’Andrea why they set the rate at the legal peak at $9000/megawatt hour shortly after midnight on Monday.
“So why didn’t you let the market be the market, instead of pushing the price to 9000?” D’Andrea quickly and sharply responded, “The market was killing people. That’s why.” D’Andrea went on, “The market was killing people in their homes, and I had lost faith in it. And every decision we made at that point forward was to get the lights on.”
The high energy rate, set by the PUC on the recommendation of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas was done to incentivize the energy companies to bring more power back on line faster.
Patrick established a line of questioning to convince the PUC Chair to readjust the energy prices during the storm. Patrick added that the energy industry stands to lose about $5-billion dollars, and he believes that cost will be passed on to the consumer.
“I don’t think I have the legal authority to do it,’ said D’Andrea. Patrick responded, “So you serve at the pleasure of the governor, and it’s pretty clear the rules give you that authority, and even if the Governor of the State of Texas told you to correct this error and this mistake, or respond to unusual circumstances (The weather) are you saying that you would not obey that?” D’Andrea replied, “I’ve worked for him (Governor Abbott) for a decade and he has never asked me to do something that I thought was illegal.”
Patrick then concentrated his questions to getting D’Andrea to admit that the legal peak rate at least should have been reduced by Thursday after the storm. “The system was in balance (Texas power grid), and we were adding reserves, and for 32 hours you kept the price at $9000.” D’Andrea responded, “Yes to keep the lights on.” Patrick came back with, “The lights were on!” The PUC Chair came back with, “Because we had a price at $9000, sir.”