Texas Governor Greg Abbott Turns to the Head of Buc-ee’s to Help Fix ERCOT

ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, is the largest electric grid in Texas and it's wholly controlled by the State of Texas.

As you may remember, ERCOT has had some major problems over the few years. The biggest one being the power outages and rolling blackouts during the record-breaking Winter Storm Uri this past February. The incident claimed 151 lives by official count, though a separate data analysis purports the count is actually 702.

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In the aftermath of the deadly winter storm, many elected officials, including Governor Greg Abbott, made promises to fix ERCOT. One of the first changes made to ERCOT was the passage of multiple bills during this year's legislative session to change the make-up of ERCOT's board.

After the passage of Senate Bill 2 and SB 3 in late May, a selection committee was created to appoint future members to ERCOT's Board of Directors.

The selection committee would appoint eight of the 11 board members. The selection committee is just three people, one appointed by the governor, one appointed by the Lt. governor, and the third member of the selection committee appointed by the Speaker of the House.

Friday, Governor Abbott announced the appointment of Arch "Beaver" Aplin to the ERCOT selection committee. "Beaver" Aplin is the president and CEO of Buc-ee's and the current chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.

If you're not familiar with Buc-ee's, the company is a chain of convenience stores throughout the south, known for their extremely clean restrooms, large locations with expansive, well-lighted parking lots, and 24-hour operation.

While there are currently no Buc-ee's in West Texas, if you travel along the I-35 or I-45 corridors or get into Dallas/Fort Worth, you'll run in to a Buc-ee's on a major highway.

Each Buc-ee's are almost like a miniature city in how the stores operate. Gas, food and supplies are constantly shipped to each location, and the staff works to keep the stores spotless 24 hours a day.

If you're going to pick someone to try to keep the lights on Texas, you might as well get some input from the man who keeps Buc-ee's running.

Aplin, and the other two members of the ERCOT selection committee, will receive input from an outside consultant, while appoint members for ERCOT's Board of Directors.

Nine of the 11 members of ERCOT's reconstituted board of directors would be voting members.

If you've never seen a Buc-ee's, here a video which shows off the largesse of their locations.