As thousands remain without power, Gov. Abbot ramps up pressure

Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, said that he will take executive action in order to address what he calls massive failures of the state’s power providers. Specifically, Abbott called out Houston’s utility service, CenterPoint, which has not yet fulfilled his request of a detailed plan for future storms in the wake of Hurricane Beryl but has until July 31 to do so.

The governor reiterated his call for an investigation of the company during a press conference on Monday, July 15, and vowed that the energy company will be held accountable.

Abbott said CenterPoint “has completely dropped the ball with regard to getting the power back on” for thousands in Houston. Many residents still remain without power nearly a week after the storm hit the Lone Star State.

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During his press conference, Abbott restated the need for a detailed plan on how the utility company will better handle the next storm and outages.

“If they do not get information to me, I will be prepared to swiftly issue an executive order establishing the guidelines that I think are most important to ensure that there will not be another disaster caused by lack of power in this region,” Abbott said.

While CenterPoint has restored power to about 2 million customers, the slow pace of recovery left many people without air conditioning during a time of sweltering heat. Abbott argued that part of the problem that caused the delay was CenterPoint not having workers properly staged before the storm.

CenterPoint acknowledged that line workers were not in impacted areas before the hurricane. The governor said that the company will need to change that going forward as hurricane season has just begun.

CenterPoint said that its top priority is restoring power to those still without electricity “as safely and quickly as possible.” The company added that it is committed to working with state and local governments as part of a “thorough review process.”