Sparks fly in Texas House over reauthorizing Public Utility Commission

The Associated Press

AUSTIN -- After hours of sometimes heated debate, the Texas House voted Wednesday to reauthorize for the next decade the Public Utility Commission, which oversees the state's electric market.

The bill, approved 139-6, would also give the commission authority over water regulation -- which had been handled by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The measure goes to the Senate.

Its most controversial provision allows the commission to issue emergency cease-and-desist orders without waiting for public hearings or judicial review when it believes that electric providers or other energy entities are engaging in actions that could harm the electricity supply.

Opponents of those powers included the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an influential conservative think tank that said commission "bureaucrats" would meddle in the free market without giving the affected businesses warning or judicial recourse.

The foundation distributed fliers to conservative lawmakers asking for an amendment removing the powers or, barring that, urging them to vote against reauthorizing the PUC altogether.

As pressure mounted, House Republicans cornered their colleague Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, the bill's sponsor, to urge him to change his proposal.

Cook eventually endorsed an amendment removing the commission's ability to issue cease-and-desist orders. He said he came to the decision not because of the fliers or his conservative colleagues but because the utility commission ensured him it could do its work without the added powers.

Supporters countered that the cease-and-desist powers would better protect consumers from potentially predatory practices.

Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, told Cook: "You have agreed, without fighting for it, to take out one of the two major sections of the bill." He said the other key component was extending oversight of water regulation to the utility commission.

"Actually there's more to the bill," Cook tried to answer.

Turner cut him off: "I am disappointed."

Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, took to the floor and suggested that the Texas Public Policy Foundation fliers were "coercion, which I'm not real happy about."

The House eventually defeated the amendment, leaving the cease-and-desist powers intact.

Turner later introduced his own successful amendment requiring the commission to conduct an analysis before doing anything that would increase by more than $100 million the annual cost of electricity to consumers.

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