D’Andrea is a sitting PUC commissioner who Abbott appointed in 2017. As chair, he is replacing DeAnn Walker, another Abbott appointee, who resigned her position on Monday — part of the fallout from the Texas blackout.
Previously, D’Andrea served as the assistant general counsel to Governor Abbott, and before that served as assistant solicitor general in the Office of the Attorney General.
The PUC oversees the state’s utilities including its electric grid, water and sewer system, and communications infrastructure. The whole body has come under fire for its role in the Texas blackouts.
This still leaves one vacancy on the three-member commission.
###
Disclosure: Unlike almost every other media outlet, The Texan is not beholden to any special interests, does not apply for any type of state or federal funding, and relies exclusively on its readers for financial support. If you’d like to become one of the people we’re financially accountable to, click here to subscribe.
Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
