Abbott Instructs Public Utilities Commission to Investigate Houston’s Power Issues

Just two days after Hurricane Beryl left more than 2 million residents without power, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he would direct the Public Utility Commission to investigate why Houstonians repeatedly lose access to electricity after a disaster..

While in Asia for a business trip, Abbott told Bloomberg TV that power outages should not be happening.

“They should not be losing power,” Abbott told Bloomberg TB. “I want to find out: Was there a structural flaw with regard to the electrical delivery system? Was that the cause of it? If so, what needs to be done to shored up? … Or was this a personnel issue of not having enough power personnel in all the right locations to get power back and going again?”

“All I can tell you is this: I want the PUC to provide information to both me and the Texas Legislature so that we will be able to act on it next year to make sure events like this never happen again,” Abbott added.

The statement comes just after more than 2.7 million Texas lost their power due to the storm, though Abbott only focused on Houston’s case. Last May, a wind storm left 1 million Houstonians without power.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Thomas Gleeson, the chair of the PUC, said on Monday that the commission would work with utility companies to conduct an analysis of the state’s response.

On Thursday, PUC and local utility companies affected by the hurricane held a meeting to discuss preparedness and recovery efforts.

So far, CenterPoint Energy, the largest utility in Houston has not announced when all customers will have their energy restored, however, about 1 million customers had energy back by Wednesday.

“If they made mistakes, and we don’t know if they did or not, that will be addressed by the PUC and the state legislature. That’s our job,” acting Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said, referring to CenterPoint.