Breaking: Texas PUC Commissioners Agree NextEra Acquisition of Oncor Not in Public Interest, Preparing Order To Reject Transaction

Commissioners of the Texas PUC today agreed unanimously that NextEra's proposed acquisition of Oncor is not in the public interest, and the PUCT is preparing an order to reject the transaction on such grounds

Generally, Commissioners were concerned with governance issues, and NextEra's opposition to certain provisions concerning ring-fencing and Oncor board independence in the manner as proposed by PUC Staff and other intervenors as conditions for approval. Commissioners were concerned with, in particular, the lack of strong ring fencing under the proposed transaction given NextEra's leveraged position.

As NextEra has indicated that such conditions would kill the transaction, Commissioners agreed that it would not make sense to issue an order conditionally approving the transaction with the provisions to address the governance and ring-fencing concerns, and Commissioners instead agreed to prepare an order rejecting the transaction

Commissioner Kenneth Anderson also said that Oncor governance and independence issues were heightened given NextEra's ownership of competitive subsidiaries in ERCOT, including generation and retail supplier Gexa