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Pat Wood

Former Chairman

Pat Wood, III, an energy infrastructure developer based in Houston, has a long career in energy.  He is the past Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. In his regulatory career in the natural gas, transportation, telecommunications and electric power industries, Wood was a forceful advocate for replacing government-centered energy regulation with competition.  Wood believes that robust infrastructure is essential for energy markets to work well, so today his project development focus is on clean power generation, independent power transmission and natural gas facilities.  Wood led a successful effort with Sharyland Utilities and Irish wind developer Airtricity to build power transmission into the Texas Panhandle to attach 10,000 MW of new generation resources. He remains involved with Sharyland/Hunt Transmission in the development of infrastructure. Wood also serves as a strategic advisor to Natural Gas Partners, a private equity firm, and is an independent director of five infrastructure companies:  SunPower, Quanta Services, Xtreme Power Solutions, TPI Composites and First Wind.  He is a member of the National Petroleum Council and is on the Board of the American Council on Renewable Energy. Under Governor George W. Bush, Wood chaired the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which introduced competition to the wholesale and retail electric power industries.  The restructured Texas electric market is considered to be the most robustly competitive energy market in the country with over three-fourths of customers choosing competitively provided service, and over $35 billion invested in new power infrastructure since the Texas restructuring law was passed in 1999, including over 10,000 MW of new renewable energy. During his four years at the helm of the FERC, Wood led the response to the 2000-2001 California energy crisis, the bankruptcy of Enron, the significant rise in fuel prices and the 2003 Northeastern power blackout.  In doing so, he promoted the development of a cleaner, more competitive power generation fleet, expanded natural gas infrastructure, and a more robust power transmission grid, all in the context of well-ordered competitive energy markets. Wood holds degrees from Texas A&M University (civil engineering) and Harvard Law School.