Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to issue an executive order forcing electricity provider CenterPoint Energy to improve the reliability of its equipment and its level of storm preparedness if the company fails to address his concerns in the wake of deadly Hurricane Beryl.
If CenterPoint does not comply with his request or provide sufficient information by July 31, the governor would “impose my own requirements on CenterPoint that are geared to keep power on through hurricane season until the next legislative session,” Abbott said at a Sunday news conference.
Power was knocked out in Houston and areas along the Texas Gulf Coast last Monday after the Category 1 hurricane, which left at least 10 dead. A week later, thousands are still waiting for power to be restored. People in southeast Texas have endured several days of hot weather without air conditioning as many look for safe drinking water, food and cool shelters.
A 71-year-old woman near Crystal Beach died after her oxygen machine ran out of battery power and her generator shut down. Two deaths in the Houston area were attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning, and fire departments received more than 200 carbon monoxide poisoning calls, local officials said, warning residents to use generators safely amid the outages.
The Public Utilities Commission of Texas will investigate CenterPoint Energy’s response to the power outages, according to Chairman Thomas Gleeson.
The power company’s ability to maintain its infrastructure and its communication with customers has been called into question, Gleeson said at a Monday news conference.
“I’ve also committed that we will bring to the legislature and the governor more long-term fixes to address these issues that will probably need statutory change,” he said.
CNN has reached out to CenterPoint officials for comment on the governor’s statement and the new state investigation.
Hundreds of thousands still without power
More than 151,000 homes and businesses were without power across Texas Monday night, and more than 135,000 of those are CenterPoint customers, according to PowerOutage.us.
As of Monday night, CenterPoint said it had restored power to 2.1 million customers since Beryl hit, according to its website. The company expects to have electricity back by Friday for all people who can receive power, it said in a Monday update that added the company had restored 92% of customers so far.
“We are grateful to our crews who have restored power to our customers at a stronger pace than we have been able to in any hurricane in our history, despite the difficult conditions,” Lynnae Wilson, the utility’s senior vice president of electric business, said in the update.
The governor called power companies’ failure to provide their customers with power “completely unacceptable.”
The governor singled out CenterPoint as having “repeatedly failed to deliver power to customers for extended periods.”
“I will work with legislators to craft laws to improve power reliability, but, and here’s the important part, we are still in hurricane season right now, and solutions cannot wait until the next session,” Abbott said. “They are needed now to minimize power disruptions as we respond to tropical weather for the remainder of the summer and this fall, to help avoid more power outages during the remainder of hurricane season.”
“Also, if CenterPoint does not comply, I will demand that the Public Utilities Commission reject CenterPoint’s request to recover a profit and pending request before the public utilities commission,” the governor added.
Abbott also noted the utility admitted many of the outages caused by the hurricane were related to trees falling on power lines.
“CenterPoint is responsible for eliminating the vegetation before a hurricane hits,” Abbott said. “Some reports show that CenterPoint spends far less per customer on vegetation removal than some other power providers.”
The governor demanded the utility company eliminate all vegetation issues by the end of August.
Abbott also noted the company claimed to have assembled thousands of additional lineman and other personnel to speed up the recovery process. However, he said some reports said many of those workers were slow to respond for various reasons.
“One was training workers after the hurricane hit, rather than training those workers before the hurricane hit,” Abbott said. “Another was positioning workers days after the hurricane was gone, rather than positioning those workers immediately after the hurricane left.”
He said the commission could reconsider the size of CenterPoint’s territorial region if the company can’t fix its ongoing issues.
“Maybe they have too large of an area for them to be able to manage adequately. It’s time to reevaluate whether or not CenterPoint should have such a large territory,” Abbott said.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also criticized the utility company at Sunday’s news conference, saying the jobs of any CenterPoint employee, “whether you’re at the top or any part of management who oversaw this response or preparation,” would be on the line.
“I know everyone at CenterPoint who’s in an air-conditioned office is watching; a freight train’s coming. You just heard it. You better be prepared,” Patrick said. “We will not and cannot tolerate this.”
In its statement, CenterPoint said, “Our top priority is restoring power to the remaining impacted customers as safely and quickly as possible. Dedicated restoration crews have continued working around-the-clock through the weekend, restoring power at the fastest rate in the company’s history.”
The utility acknowledged customers’ growing frustrations and committed to a review of its response for customers without power.
“We have heard and understand our customers’ frustrations, and we are committed to working together with the State, local government, regulators, and community leaders both to help the Greater Houston area recover from Hurricane Beryl and to improve for the future,” the utility said.
The Texas power grid was also a focal point in February 2021, after a massive statewide outage during a deep freeze left more than 200 people dead and millions without heat and power for days.
The state’s government has worked with local officials over the last week to provide ready-to-eat meals for people who have lost electricity in their homes, Abbott said.
Officials are also working to ensure people have adequate water supplies and ice, and are addressing the ongoing medical needs at hospitals and health care facilities, according to the governor.
“Meals have been lost because people have not had the power on in their house or apartment, and as a result, their food has spoiled … because of lack of power,” he said. “The lack of power is because of CenterPoint.”
CNN’s Amy Simonson, Steve Almasy, Dalia Faheid and Taylor Galgano contributed to this report.
