HOUSTON, Texas (CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that his office will be investigating CenterPoint Energy over its conduct surrounding Hurricane Beryl.
In the wake of the storm that rocked the Gulf Coast in early July, more than 2 million Houstonians lost power for days and tens of thousands were without electricity more than a week after the storm. At least 36 people died as a result of the storm, including many heat-related deaths in homes without power and air conditioning. Many in the city and in Texas at large, from private citizens to government officials, have turned their ire toward CenterPoint Energy, the main electrical provider for the Houston area.
Now, Paxton’s office aims to determine whether CenterPoint’s handling of the storm violated state law.
“My office is aware of concerning allegations regarding CenterPoint and how its conduct affected readiness during Hurricane Beryl, a storm that left millions of Texans without power,” Paxton said in a statement Monday. “If the investigation uncovers unlawful activity, that activity will be met with the full force of the law.”
Paxton's office will focus on complaints stemming from increases to electricity rates and prices for CenterPoint customers, the length of the outages after the storm and the delays in restoring power.
Texans have not been quiet in their criticism of the energy company since the storm. The famous “CenterPointless” graffiti that appeared under Interstate 10 after the storm, which has since been removed, and the Whataburger app, which many in the city relied on to track power outages after CenterPoint’s official tracker went offline in May, became two of the many memetic icons of Houston’s frustration. And the widely shared image of CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells giving an interview from a 70-degree air-conditioned room while hundreds of thousands suffered through the heat without any air conditioning only added to the city’s anger.
Paxton’s announcement comes as other officials have also taken aim at CenterPoint. Houston Mayor John Whitmire has demanded accountability for CenterPoint. The Texas Public Utility Commission, a five-member body appointed by the governor, has spent several hearings in the weeks since the storm questioning and pressuring CenterPoint executives on the company’s response and future plans.
State Senator Paul Bettencourt, a prominent Houston-area Republican who also lost power in the storm, has been the most vocal member of the Texas Senate’s 13-member committee on CenterPoint’s response to Hurricane Beryl. Bettencourt and other lawmakers grilled CenterPoint particularly hard on the $800 million it spent on mobile generators after the historic 2021 winter storm that, like Hurricane Beryl, left large swaths of Texas without power for days.
Bettencourt expressed his frustration that in the three years since CenterPoint bought them, those generators have gone largely unused, but the company has nonetheless left its customers to pay for them with rate increases.
“It's just flat wrong,” Bettencourt told ABC13 Houston, referring to the rate increases and the company’s broader conduct. “I used the term 'bassackwards' because it's exactly opposite of what it's supposed to be.”
Bettencourt and the committee have repeatedly discussed theoretical legislation to recoup some of the money Houstonians have spent on those rate increases, but so far no bills have been introduced.
CenterPoint spokesperson John Sousa said the company will cooperate with Paxton's office.
“Since Hurricane Beryl, we have demonstrated our absolute commitment to transparency and cooperation through our participation in three separate hearings at the PUCT, the Senate, and the House. We look forward to cooperating with the Texas attorney general or any other agency and have made clear our commitment to upholding the values of our company," Sousa said in an email. "We urge any party that has information concerning these issues to come forward and provide such information to us, our regulator, or the Texas attorney general immediately.”
Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
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