Breaking: Donna Nelson Departing Texas PUC

At today's Texas PUC open meeting, Texas PUC Chair Donna Nelson announced that she is leaving the Public Utility Commission of Texas, with May 15 as her last day at the Commission

During her tenure on the Commission, Nelson has been a strong advocate of customer choice and the state's retail market, helping shepherd through the Commission various rulemakings concerning REP certification, disclosures, and POLRs, particularly in the wake of the 2008 congestion-related price spikes

Denial of NextEra Acquisition of Oncor

Also this morning, the Commission formally adopted an order denying NextEra Energy, Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Oncor

Apart from one correction for a change in language to replace a word that had previously intended to be replaced, the PUC adopted without modification the findings and conclusions from a draft order released in advance of today's open meeting.

See our earlier story here for the untouched findings and conclusions from the draft order

In short, the adopted order finds that NextEra Energy ownership of Oncor would subject Oncor and its ratepayers to significant new risks. The order finds that the tangible benefits to Texas ratepayers that are specific to the proposed transactions are minimal, and would do little to compensate ratepayers for any of the additional risks imposed. When the Commission weighs the additional risks and the lack of tangible benefits, combined with NextEra Energy’s insistence on eliminating two critical ring-fencing protections, the Commission finds that the proposed transactions are not in the public interest, and the application is denied (see prior story for more specifics the draft order, which have been adopted)