Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is focusing on the PUC, testing Gov. Greg Abbott

Since last winter’s disaster, Gov. Greg Abbott has been working to blame the state’s power grid operator – despite being overseen by Abbott’s public utility commission.

But as state lawmakers investigate their response to the crisis, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is finding it harder and harder to look outside the commission, shining a harsh spotlight on Abbott’s people and their decisions.

Last week, Patrick demanded the resignation of then-PUC president DeAnn Walker – and hours later, she resigned. Then, after a regulatory watchdog told the commission earlier this week that Texas Electric Reliability Council overcharged $ 16 billion in electricity suppliers during the storm, Patrick asked the PUC to cut costs back – and Abbott considered to be an emergency for the next day’s legislative session.

The watchdog later revised its estimate of surcharges to $ 4.2 billion, but that did not dampen Patrick’s anger. The lieutenant-governor’s focus on the PUC took the most dramatic change until Thursday night, when he appeared at a state Senate committee hearing to make Arthur D’Andrea, the commission’s new chairman elected by Abbott – and the only remaining member .

Finally, Patrick ended the week with Abbott’s most direct challenge. In a statement Friday night, Patrick called on Abbott to “mediate” and replace D’Andrea, daring the governor to abandon his 9-day-old appointee, who previously worked as an assistant general counsel. to Abbott.

Abbott quickly dismissed Patrick.

Even before Patrick’s statement, Chapter observers said they could not remember anything like the Patrick-D’Andrea confrontation in recent memory.

“It’s extremely unusual and I’ve never seen a lieutenant governor come and sit and attend a hearing as if he were a senator – and he also addresses someone in public – if he doesn’t intend to put pressure on him. he should resign, ”said Sandie Haverlah, a lobbyist for nonprofits. “Clearly, this is an insult to the governor, because D’Andrea is serving the governor’s will.”

Asked on Friday before Patrick’s statement whether Abbott remains confident in D’Andrea’s ability to lead the PUC, Abbott’s spokeswoman Renae Eze said, “Absolutely.” And in a letter published after Patrick called for D’Andrea’s dismissal, Abbott told Patrick that he agreed with D’Andrea “about his inability to take the action you asked for.” looking for price correction.

Abbott has been reluctant to blame the PUC, which regulates the state’s electricity, water and telecommunications utilities, since the early days of the storm, instead choosing to excorad the Texas Electrical Reliability Council. Asked at a news conference on February 18 whether he had any responsibility for the crisis, given his office’s relationship with the PUC, Abbott focused on ERCOT, saying: “I take responsibility for the current status of ERCOT.”

“This is not a word I would normally use to describe Dan Patrick, but I think he has always been a little more circumspect, especially when it comes to ERCOT,” said Adrian Shelley, Texas director of the Public Citizen group on consumer rights. “Abbott was right there taking cheap photos at ERCOT.”

What drives the dynamics is the source of growing speculation in Austin. There is a political context: Patrick has never been able to fully dispel rumors that he would be interested in the governor’s office, despite insisting that he would never run against Abbott and has repeatedly said he intends to run for office. third term as lieutenant governor in 2022.

In the context of this session, it was a notable comeback for Patrick, who kept an unusually low profile in the opening weeks. This began to change in early February, when he struggled to play the national anthem at professional sports games and made preparations to publish a list of legislative priorities.

Then came the storm, which left millions of Texans cold and dark, raised awkward questions about the state’s power grid, and shuffled the Capitol agenda.

Patrick said the crisis had led him to drop priorities for a few days so he could readjust them to reflect the new pressing issues. Its list of 31 priorities was complemented by the “ERCOT reform” and the “stability of the electricity network”, which ranks second and third, respectively – immediately after the mandatory budget.

But things continued to change for Patrick after Walker and ERCOT CEO Bill Magness appeared before state and Senate committees in late February. The lieutenant governor discussed his performance in a lengthy statement and called on them to resign, easily becoming the highest-ranking official elected to begin widening the game of blame after the storm at the PUC.

By the end of the day, Walker had submitted his resignation letter with immediate effect.

Abbott has already called on ERCOT leaders to resign, but has said nothing about the PUC. After Walker announced his resignation, Abbott’s office issued a statement thanking Walker “for her years of service in the state of Texas.”

Patrick further increased pressure on the PUC on Monday when he called on ERCOT and the commission to retroactively reduce the electricity market price during the outage week. The next day, Patrick received a backup from 28 of the legislature’s 31 senators, who sent a letter to D’Andrea – whom Abbott had just appointed to replace Walker as president. PUC – urging him “in the strongest possible terms to immediately correct the billing errors. ”

D’Andrea and PUC refused to do so, citing unforeseen consequences of the mix on an already established electricity market. D’Andrea held this view firmly while Patrick asked him for almost half an hour on Thursday night, claiming that D’Andrea had told him otherwise in a recent call.

In his statement on Friday night, Patrick asked Abbott to “replace Mr D’Andrea in the PUC when he fills the other two vacancies there.”

“Sir. D’Andrea’s position requires both professional competence and honesty, and he demonstrated little of the hearings yesterday,” Patrick said. “I think most Texans who attended the Senate case hearing would conclude that D ‘ Andrea should not have full authority over ERCOT or be part of the solution. “

Less than an hour after Patrick’s statement, Abbott’s office communicated the letter to the lieutenant governor. In the letter, Abbott invoked his past experience as a state Supreme Court judge and attorney general to support D’Andrea and told Patrick that the governor “has no independent authority to achieve the goals you seek.”

“The only entity that can authorize the solution you want is the legislator himself,” Abbott wrote. “That is why we have made this issue an emergency for the legislature to consider this session.”

Not all senators are with Patrick, at least when it comes to price correction. The three senators who did not sign the letter were Sens. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe; Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin; and Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills. Hancock told The Dallas Morning News that he wants to remain neutral in the debate because he chairs the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, which held post-storm hearings in the chamber.

Creighton’s office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Meanwhile, MPs in the House have taken what they see as a more deliberative approach, with some commitments to “have all the facts” before taking action on the issue.

During the hearing of the House State Affairs Committee, State Representative Chris Paddie, a Marshall Republican who chairs the committee, appeared to take a hit on the letter from 28 Senate members asking D’Andrea to reverse the charges.

“Before we take a stand or have any of us send you individually, sir, a letter or anything,” Paddie told D’Andrea, “I’ll be very sure when I sign my name on something I have all the facts and that it is correct “.

After the meeting, the Speaker of the House, Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, said in a statement that he appreciated the committee for “deliberative examination” of the issue and said he was looking forward to a new hearing next week on the conversation.

And in the last week, Phelan launched the idea of ​​legislation that would create a loan fund by withdrawing money from the state savings account, which is also known as the rainy day fund. This new fund could help electricity and gas producers strengthen their facilities against future cold weather events.

The proposal, filed Friday by state Representative Dan Huberty, R-Houston, is modeled after the Texas State Water Implementation Fund, known as SWIFT, which has helped fund tens of billions of dollars in new water projects in recent years. years. .

Meanwhile, it seems inevitable that the heat on the PUC will not recede, despite Abbott’s early efforts to protect his nominees from the storm.

“I think it would be difficult to come to any other conclusion,” said Doug Lewin, a climate and energy consultant. “Abbott clearly jumped on the bandwagon [ERCOT], and I think … Patrick beat the drum that they are ERCOT and PUC and really focused on PUC. ”

Cassi Pollock contributed to the reporting.