Texas lawmakers grill CenterPoint in senate committee about Hurricane Beryl response
AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) -- State lawmakers finally had their turn to grill CenterPoint Energy executives in a Texas Senate committee on Monday about their response to Hurricane Beryl.
The hearing comes a week after the company promised to do better while being questioned by Texas Utility Regulators.
Before CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells took a question, he had a message for lawmakers and those watching.
"I want to apologize to our customers and their families for the frustrations they experienced during Hurricane Beryl and the restoration process," Wells said.
The committee will try to get to the bottom of why CenterPoint wasn't as prepared as it should have been and will likely take a critical look at the plan CenterPoint has laid out to see if they think it's good enough.
RELATED: Energy expert expresses doubts about CenterPoint Energy's plan to improve: 'Not super optimistic'
During Monday morning's hearing, the senators' overall message was that what happened with the power after Hurricane Beryl could not be tolerated, especially when millions were left in the dark with a power tracker website that didn't work for days.
"Let's go over the power tracker decision because this is the single, quite frankly, most double-dumb (expletive) decision I've ever seen a major corporation make in your business," State Sen. Paul Bettencourt said.
They said they were trying to answer two questions: Why did more than 2 million people lose power after this Category 1 storm, and why did it take so long for it to come back on?
The storm death toll is now up to 38 in our area. Officials say 14 of those people died specifically because of the power outage.
Lawmakers hope to better understand what regulations or legislation can be implemented after Monday's meeting so this doesn't happen again.
"What makes my blood boil is the fact that we are having to have a hearing to hear about a whole bunch of people who did their job right, but the biggest multi-billion dollar corporation, we're having to tell them how to do your job," Bettencourt said Monday. "And that is not something I enjoy doing, but we are going to do it today because we have to. Because the people who died deserve an answer. The people who had their power off deserve an answer, and more importantly, the future of this region is based upon having access to power."
Lawmakers said they may consider new legislation because of the storm, including creating stiffer penalties, giving utility companies better access to power lines, and requiring power providers to be better prepared. They said that improvements shouldn't be passed on to customers.
"I don't want this to be on the backs on the ratepayers in those service areas," State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst said. "It just can't be."
Frustration also stemmed from mobile generators CenterPoint purchased a few years ago for $800 million. Wells said the investments were made after the winter storm that impacted the grid in 2021.
He told lawmakers the equipment hasn't been used since it was purchased. Lawmakers told the company they wished it spent more money on clearing trees and branches from power lines.
"Instead of spending the money on vegetation management, which fixes the problem, we spent a bunch of money, and this is an enormous amount of money, $1.2 billion, which 80% of it can't be used in a hurricane recovery mode," Bettencourt said.
Wells told lawmakers that CenterPoint plans to make 40 improvements this hurricane season. Energy experts said that real change may take years.
University of Houston associate professor Harish Krishnamoorthy said investments in clearing trees, underground power lines, and replacing wood poles with concrete will make a difference, but it could take years.
He believes it'll happen because of the attention this storm has generated, similar to what happened after the winter storm from a few years ago.
"We had massive improvements made in the plants. People started talking about how to prevent such outages from happening," Krishnamoorthy explained.
Last week, in front of the Public Utility Commission, CenterPoint executives apologized and laid out a plan for improvement, promising a new outage tracker by Aug. 1, better communication, and better vegetation management.
SEE RELATED: CenterPoint apologizes and proposes action plan to work efficiently following botched Beryl response
"Y'all have to do better. The customers deserve better. We all are giving you a return that expects better," Jimmy Glotfelty with the Public Utility Commission said.
"While we cannot erase the frustrations and difficulties so many of our customers endured, I and my entire leadership team will not make excuses," Wells said.
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