Angry Houston residents still want answers after Hurricane Beryl power failure

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

When Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas, the Category 1 storm left more than 2 million utility customers without power in the greater Houston area. That was more than a week ago. But thousands still do not have power, and some residents are fed up with the outages. City, county and state leaders are demanding answers. Reporter Stella Chavez with the Texas Newsroom joins us now with an update. Hey, Stella.

STELLA CHAVEZ, BYLINE: Hey. It's good to be here.

DETROW: What is the situation in Houston right now? How many people are we talking about without power?

CHAVEZ: Well, currently about 3,000 customers in the greater Houston area don't have power. Now, that includes the actual number of residents, which is much higher than that. And CenterPoint Energy, the utility company that serves most of the residents there. says it would have power restored to all customers by the end of today Friday. Now, Red Cross mobile teams have been on the ground providing food and water. And the disaster relief organization is also providing shelter to residents who don't have power or AC.

DETROW: This was a devastating storm. At least 18 people have died. And there are so many questions now about the power company's response. Walk us through some of the issues that happened here.

CHAVEZ: Well, a lot of residents and elected officials are angry. They say that the company's preparations for the storm weren't adequate, and that some preventative measures should have been taken well before the storm, things like trimming tree limbs around power poles. But there's also confusion about who takes care of that. Is it the city's responsibility? Is it CenterPoint's or the residents? And there are also major questions about CenterPoint's generators. The Houston Chronicle reported this week that the company spent $800 million on 20 large generators, but most of them are not being used.

I spoke with energy expert Doug Lewin. He writes the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter. And he says, while attention is on CenterPoint, elected officials are also to blame.

DOUG LEWIN: They've chosen to do things like spend billions of dollars on new gas plants that don't help when there's a hurricane, to allow CenterPoint to spend $800 million on mobile generators, which haven't helped much after a hurricane. So, you know, those are all policy choices. So I think they've got to look in the mirror a little bit, too, and do a better job setting a regulatory and policy construct to actually serve Texans.

DETROW: Let's talk about Texas Governor Greg Abbott for a moment. There's been a lot of focus on the fact that he was out of the country when the storm hit. What has his reaction been to all of this?

CHAVEZ: Well, you're right. He was criticized for not canceling his trip or even cutting it short. But when he got back, he held a press conference and said CenterPoint had completely dropped the ball with regard to getting power back on. He also fired off a letter to CenterPoint's CEO, Jason Wells. And in it, he lists items he wants the company to address. He wants them to speed up replacing power poles with more resilient ones before the end of this hurricane season. And the CEO has to submit a plan by the end of the month, if it doesn't, or if he doesn't, Abbott says he'll deny any request to raise rates and take other steps. Now, while Abbott is pointing the finger at CenterPoint, others are saying his administration could have done more.

DETROW: What about the state energy regulators? Could they have done more?

CHAVEZ: So Governor Abbott also sent a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas demanding answers. I talked to Slester Turner. He's the former state rep and former mayor of Houston, and he says everyone in leadership needs to do their part, especially with extreme weather being so routine now due to manmade climate change.

SYLVESTER TURNER: The reality is the storms are coming with greater frequency and greater intensity, which means preparation, preparation, preparation. All of the parties have a role to play.

CHAVEZ: Now, the Utilities Commission has until December 1 to submit its report, and that's before the next legislative session, which begins in January.

DETROW: All right. That's Texas Newsroom's Stella Chavez. Thank you so much for joining us.

CHAVEZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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