About the PUCT  

Governor Greg Abbott appointed Lori Cobos to serve as Commissioner on the Public Utility Commission of Texas on June 17, 2021.

Commissioner Cobos has over 20 years of broad experience in the Texas electric power industry in both the public and private sector. She has served in several senior-level positions at the PUCT, including serving as an advisor for two PUCT Commissioners, assistant counsel to the PUCT Executive Director, and senior policy analyst, and served as in-house counsel at ERCOT. In the private sector, Cobos has served as a director of government and regulatory affairs for a power generation company and as principal owner of her own legal and consulting firm, where she assisted clients with legal, regulatory, public policy, legislative, and business development matters in the Texas electric power industry.

At the PUCT, Commissioner Cobos has played a critically important role in major statewide initiatives to fortify the reliability and resiliency of the state's electric grid. Commissioner Cobos has also played a leading role in the development of major transmission infrastructure across the state, including the Permian Basin region and Rio Grande Valley. Cobos serves as an ex officio member of the ERCOT Board of Directors and serves on the Regional State Committee of the Southwest Power Pool. Cobos is the President of the Southeastern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the Organization of MISO States and as President of the Entergy Regional States Committee.

Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Cobos served as Chief Executive and Public Counsel for the Office of Public Utility Counsel by appointment of Governor Abbott. During her tenure at OPUC, Cobos elevated the agency's profile and strengthened the agency's legal representation, policy advocacy, and consumer outreach and assistance. Under her leadership, OPUC effectively represented residential and small commercial consumers before the PUCT, State Office of Administrative Hearings, state court, and ERCOT, as an ex officio member of the ERCOT Board of Directors. Through the litigation of electric and water utility cases, OPUC helped achieve over $1.3 Billion in utility bill savings for residential and small commercial consumers in Texas, which included an agency record of approximately $1.179 Billion in 2020.

Commissioner Cobos is a member of the State Bar of Texas and has served as the chair of the Public Utility Law Section. Cobos received a J.D. from Texas Tech University and was a member of the Texas Tech Law Review. She received an M.A. in Public Administration and a B.B.A. in General Business, with Magna Cum Laude honors from Sul Ross State University and received Sul Ross's Distinguished Alumni award in 2024. Cobos served on the Board of Directors of Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation by appointment of Governor Abbott. She is a native of Alpine, Texas.

Governor Greg Abbott appointed James Glotfelty to serve as a commissioner on the Public Utility Commission of Texas on August 6, 2021, for a term set to expire on September 1, 2025. Before his appointment, he served as Founder and Executive Vice President of Clean Line Energy.

His public sector experience includes serving as Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, Energy Policy Director to Texas Governor George W. Bush and Legislative Director to Congressman Sam Johnson. He founded and led the Office of Electricity at The U.S. Department of Energy, led the joint US-Canadian Power System Outage Task Force and served on the White House Task Force to Streamline Energy Permitting.

Mr. Glotfelty's private sector work also includes various Executive and Managerial roles at Calpine Corporation, ICF Consulting and Quanta Services.

He served as Chairman of AWEA on the Transmission Committee and held board positions on ConservAmerica, Texas Housing Finance Corporation and Group NIRE. He regularly participated in the Aspen Institute Energy Forum, the Harvard Energy Policy Group and the Keystone Energy Forum.

A former Committee Chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership and an Alumni of the Texas Lyceum, Jimmy received his Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Marketing from Texas Christian University.

Governor Greg Abbott appointed Will McAdams to serve as a commissioner on the Public Utility Commission of Texas on April 1, 2021 for a term set to expire on September 1, 2025. Before his appointment, Will served as President of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas where he represented the men and women who build Texas, advocating for jobsite safety programs, worker safety training, and promotion of skilled workforce development.

Before joining ABC of Texas, Will served for over 10 years in state government most recently as Advisor to Speaker Dennis Bonnen for Business and Regulated Industries. Prior to joining the Speaker's Staff, Will served in several senior staff positions within the Texas Senate. These included serving as the Director for the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce Chaired by Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills). Will has also served as Legislative Director for Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown), and as Deputy Director for the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Legislative and Media Relations Director for State Senator Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay).

Before working in the State Capitol, Will served as an infantry officer for four years in the United States Army and retired honorably as a captain. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science. He and his wife are raising their children in Austin, TX.

Governor Greg Abbott appointed Peter Lake to serve as Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas on April 12, 2021 for a term set to expire on September 1, 2023. Before his appointment, he served as Chairman of the Texas Water Development Board, the state's primary water planning and financing agency charged with leading the state's efforts to ensure a secure water future for Texans.

Lake has held a variety of financial roles across a number of industries. Previously, he acted as director of research and head of automated trading at Gambit Trading, a member firm of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In this capacity, he led the firm's market research initiatives and directed the development of its first automated trading programs. As one of the firm's proprietary market makers he also traded interest rate derivatives, primarily focusing on U.S. Treasury bond futures.

He has also served as director of business development for Lake Ronel Oil Company, where he focused on financial analysis of upstream oil and gas opportunities. In addition, he served as director of special projects for VantageCap Partners. In this position he played a key role in the due diligence, valuation, and transactional aspects of the successful divestment of the firm's primary investment.

Lake graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in public policy with a specialization in economics from the University of Chicago, and he earned a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

Lake was born and raised in Tyler, Texas.

Governor Greg Abbott named Arthur D'Andrea as chair of the Public Utility Commission on March 3, 2021. Chairman D'Andrea was first appointed to the Commission on November 14, 2017, for a term set to expire on September 1, 2023. Before his appointment, Commissioner D'Andrea served as Assistant General Counsel to Governor Abbott. His career has been primarily focused on the law, including his role as Assistant Solicitor General in the Texas Attorney General's office where he served as lead appellate counsel in matters including constitutional challenges to state statutes, public-utilities regulation, antitrust, tax disputes, insurance regulation, regulatory takings, and petitions for writ of habeas corpus. There he argued thirteen cases in the Second and Fifth Circuits, the Texas Supreme Court, and in the intermediate state courts of appeals.

Prior to joining the Attorney General's team, Arthur worked in the Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice Group for a private law firm where he represented clients before the United States Supreme Court and in federal and state courts of appeals nationwide in matters including white-collar criminal prosecutions, international-trade disputes, patent infringement, trademark disputes, bankruptcy, international arbitration, and securities litigation.

After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas, Commissioner D'Andrea worked as a Management Consultant for Price Waterhouse Coopers before earning a Juris Doctor from the University Of Texas School Of Law. He and his wife, Erin, are raising their children in Austin, Texas.

Governor Greg Abbott appointed Shelly Botkin to serve as a commissioner on the Public Utility Commission of Texas on June 11, 2018, for a term set that expires on September 1, 2019. Before her appointment, Commissioner Botkin served as Director of Corporate Communications and Government Relations for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) where she worked to build awareness of the organization's vital role in managing the electric grid for most of Texas.

Prior to joining ERCOT, Shelly worked ten years in the Texas capitol as a senior policy analyst on business, regulatory, and environmental issues for two state senators and for both the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House.

After growing up in Lubbock, Shelly earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Governor Greg Abbott appointed DeAnn T. Walker to serve as chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas on September 20, 2017, for a term set that expires on September 1, 2021. Before her appointment, Chairman Walker served as the Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Abbott on matters related to regulated industries. Her career in the electric industry began at the Commission in 1988 where she served, first, as an Assistant General Counsel and, later, as an Administrative Law Judge until 1997. Before joining the Governor's staff, she served as Associate General Counsel and Director of Regulatory Affairs at CenterPoint Energy.

DeAnn is an ex-officio member of the Board of Directors of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Texas Reliability Entity and a member of the Regional State Committee for the Southwest Power Pool. She also has been appointed by Chairman Pai to serve on the Intergovernmental Advisory Commission of the Federal Communications Commission. She is a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, serving on the Electricity Committee, and the Advisory Council of the New Mexico State University Center for Public Utilities.

Chairman Walker received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Southern Methodist University and a Juris Doctor from South Texas College of Law. She and her husband Ron reside in Austin, Texas.