Patrick H. Wood

Patrick Henry Wood III (born July 4, 1962) was a Texas lawyer who served as chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas from 1995 to 2001, and of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from 2001 to 2005.

Biography Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Wood received a B.S. from Texas A&M University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

On March 27, 2001, President Bush named Wood to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where Wood remained until 2005.

Earlier in the same month that he was appointed, Wood voted with the Texas Commission to impose price caps on providers to prevent energy price spikes, suggesting that he would not oppose this practice at the federal level. Over the course of his tenure, Wood was reported to have "alienated some on Capitol Hill by pushing hard for a particular approach to national deregulation of wholesale electricity".