In the wake of Hurricane Beryl, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to CenterPoint Energy executives scrutinizing their preparedness and response to severe weather conditions.
While laying into the energy provider for causing Texans to “lose faith” in their basic utilities, Abbott promised in his letter Tuesday that the “adequacy” of CenterPoint’s preparedness will be “analyzed in the coming months.”
“There is a growing concern of whether CenterPoint Energy was prioritizing Texans or its own bottom line,” wrote Abbott, adding that he would direct the Public Utilities Commission “to undertake a rigorous study” on whether the company cut corners.
The demands come one week after Beryl devastated Southeast Texas, including major cities like Houston and Galveston, when it hit landfall in the early morning of July 8 as a Category 1 storm. At least 8 individuals have died from the hurricane, dozens were injured, and one is missing.
At its peak, around 2.3 million individuals—mostly in Texas—lost their power. While other energy providers worked quickly to restore the lost power, CenterPoint lagged behind them. The company stated two days after the hurricane dissipated that nearly 750,000 customers were still out of power and would be until that upcoming weekend.
However, some CenterPoint customers in Texas are still without power or at reduced capacity a week later.
Abbott’s letter detailed certain changes and other information to be provided to the governor’s office by July 31 as the PUC investigates. Among them is a request that CenterPoint explain by the end of August how it plans to eliminate all vegetation issues.
Other demands task CenterPoint to do the following:
- Specify all actions it failed to do during Beryl to eliminate outages that it will take in the future.
- Ensure the company has a sufficient number of pre-staged workers to immediately respond to future outages.
- Describe how CenterPoint will quickly restore power for hospitals, nursing homes, and senior living facilities.
- Explain the process by which the replacement process for old electrical poles will be accelerated as a result of Beryl and how it will go about prioritizing the deployment of new poles.
- Overview CenterPoint’s plan to improve communication with customers before, during, and after a weather event—notably, through updates to its outage map.
The governor warned that if CenterPoint does not comply, he will issue an executive order to impose requirements on the company that will keep power on throughout the rest of the hurricane season. In addition, he will request the PUC ignore any attempt by CenterPoint to raise utility rates for Texans.
Abbott’s letter follows another he penned over the weekend to undertake a broader study on the root causes of the outages. This study aims to answer questions such as whether it was largely an infrastructure or personnel issue.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick promised on X that the Texas Senate is “committed to getting the answers” for why CenterPoint’s preparedness failed during Beryl.
“People have a right to be extremely frustrated with CenterPoint,” explained Patrick. “People are suffering through terribly oppressive heat, a lack of food and gasoline availability, debris everywhere, and much more. The poor and most vulnerable are suffering the most.”
Days before, the Houston City Council and Mayor John Whitmire grilled a CenterPoint spokesperson on the company’s failures.
“We should have never been in this place to begin with with a Category 1, seeing the widespread outages that we are,” argued Councilmember Abbie Kamin. “I look forward to more conversation, but for Houstonians who are sitting in their homes right now, this is unacceptable.”
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