PEC board member Jim Powers has just resigned, apparently because of conflicts of interest that he failed to manage, and the episode raises troubling questions that need to be addressed by our electric power co-op.

Powers is a former Hays County judge, and a prominent Republican who had previously been appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to the board of another utility, the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority. Rumors of conflicts of interest – using public office to prosper his business enterprises...