Texas senators grill utility executives about massive power failure after Hurricane Beryl

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The top executive of Houston’s power utility told lawmakers Monday the company would lose momentum on changes after Hurricane Beryl if he resigned over the prolonged and deadly power outages that followed the storm plowing this month onto the Texas coast.

“I take personal accountability for not meeting our customer’s expectations during Hurricane Beryl,” Jason Wells, CenterPoint Energy’s chief executive officer, told a panel of state senators in the Texas Capitol. CenterPoint will launch an outage tracker on Thursday to help prepare customers for the next storm and hire a chief communications officer to improve their messaging, Wells said.

The hearing marked the first time that Texas lawmakers have publicly grilled the CenterPoint Energy executive since the storm made landfall on July 8 and knocked out power to nearly 3 million people. Officials have said at least a dozen residents in the Houston area died from complications due to the heat and losing power, including hyperthermia, or when a person’s body temperature rises far above normal.

In total, at least 36 deaths have been attributed to Beryl.

“Our constituents deserve answers,” Republican state Sen. Brandon Creighton said, naming some of his constituents who died in the storm.

Wells was called to testify before the special legislative committee that is examining the company’s failure to provide a timely outage tracker and an overall lack of preparedness for the hurricane. Wells said it was “inexcusable” that the company’s outage tracker failed to deploy in a timely manner.

Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, whose district includes Houston, asked Wells what he thought about calls for him step down by some frustrated residents in the community. Wells said the company is continuing to work with city residents in their post-storm efforts.

Gov. Greg Abbott and the Public Utility Commission have demanded answers from CenterPoint Energy, the city’s largest utility provider, about why the outages lasted so long. Apart from the inquiry by lawmakers, the utilities commission has begun its own investigation.

The storm damaged power lines and uprooted trees that left millions of people without electricity for days. CenterPoint has defended its storm preparedness and has said that it deployed about 12,000 additional workers to help restore power.

Last Thursday, Wells apologized to customers during a meeting with the Public Utility Commission of Texas in Austin.

Hurricane Beryl is the latest natural disaster to hit Houston after a powerful storm ripped through the area in May and left nearly 1 million people without power. In 2021, Texas’ power grid went out amid a deadly winter storm that left millions across the state freezing in their homes.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that CenterPoint Energy chief executive officer Jason Wells, not Jason Ryan, testified at the special senate committee meeting and that not all of the at least 36 deaths attributed to Beryl were heat-related.

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Nadia Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.