How would Woods SMD impact Texas independence?
Restructuring Today 8.28.02 Texas — before it joined the US — had embassies in Europe and its own army, navy and history. In this century ERCOT’s independence from federal meddling into Texas energy policy creates a certain pride in the Lone Star State. FERC Chairman Pat Wood has long credited ERCOT’s independence from federal rules for a large part of his success in creating the Texas retail market when he headed the PUC recently. Now as Texas plans to open up the rest of the state to retail competition conformity with Wood’s own SMD and RTO plans has state lawmakers worried that all or part of ERCOT’s cherished freedom from the feds might be lost. The PUC is looking at opening the El Paso area in West Texas in 2005, the Panhandle in 2007 and is deciding whether the Entergy grid in East Texas should be run by an independent entity within the next year or two, Chairman Rebecca Klein told lawmakers last week. The areas are served by incumbents that have to join RTOs, Klein noted. Lawm
