It was two former FERC commissioners who recommended to then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush that he appoint a relative unknown at the time, Patrick Wood III, as a state regulator, Wood disclosed Thursday, dispelling reports that long-time Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay pulled political strings to get him the job.

Former Commissioner Jerry J. Langdon and one-time Chairman Martin L. Allday, both Texas natives, suggested that Wood, now FERC chairman, be considered for the then-open commissioner seat on the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUCT), Wood wrote in a letter to Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), chairman of the House subcommittee on energy and air quality. Wood had been a legal advisor to Langdon at FERC during the early 1990s.

“Shortly after the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election, these two men wrote a letter recommending me to Governor-elect Bush for the open PUCT position. After his inauguration, Governor Bush called me in for an interview for the position on Jan. 27, 1995. During my interview, I observed the enclosed letter from Chairman Allday and Commissioner Langdon on his desk,” Wood said. He noted that Bush offered him the post following the interview.

The letter may help to defuse the controversy over how big a part Lay played in getting Wood named to the Texas Commission and to FERC. Several Capitol Hill lawmakers have launched probes into the ties between the federal agency and Enron, and one congressman, Rep. William Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ), has gone as far as to call for Wood’s resignation. He has charged that Wood “irrevocably” compromised the integrity of FERC.

The letter is a response to a request by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), a member of the full House Energy and Commerce Committee, for Wood to list all of his contacts with Lay while FERC chairman and a Texas regulator. Wood said he first met Lay on May 29, 1996 at a meeting of the Governor’s Business Council, an advisory group of Texas business executives. Lay chaired the council.

In the letter, Wood lists a total of 10 contacts with Lay and Enron executives over a seven-year period. He recalled his last contact — or attempted contact — with Lay came on Nov. 8, 2001. Lay telephoned Wood, who was inaccessible at the time, to inform him of Enron’s proposed merger with Dynegy, he said.

Wood recalled two other phone calls with Lay, which he initiated, while he was still a Texas regulator. In March 1997, Wood noted he called Lay seeking Enron’s support for the governor’s utility restructuring bill. During a phone conversation on Jan. 24, 2001, Wood said he expressed his concern about the “erratic shift” of Enron’s policy on key Texas power market design issues.

In that same call, Wood said Lay congratulated him on his rumored appointment to the Federal Communications Commission in the Bush administration. Wood, who at the time knew he was being considered for FERC instead, said he didn’t respond to Lay because the information had not been made public yet.

Wood said he didn’t keep records of his contacts prior to 1996, or maintain phone logs. “Despite this, I believe that the contacts [listed]…represent all contacts with Mr. Lay and other officials, with the exception of [Enron executive] Steve Kean, with whom I may have talked by phone two or three times over the seven-year period,” he told Barton.

The list does not include any meetings with non-executive Enron staff or company outside attorneys, or contacts with Enron officials at legislative hearings, he said. Nor does it include meetings that Wood had with Max Yzaguirre, a former Enron executive who was named to the Texas Commission in 2001. Yzaguirre, who was tainted by the Enron financial scandal, recently left the state agency.

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