What Texas Governor Abbott says about the power outages after Hurricane Beryl

Governor Greg Abbott wants to investigate why more than two million Texans were without power after Hurricane Beryl hit on Monday and why up to a quarter of them may have to wait until next week for power to be fully restored.

“I will immediately direct the Public Utility Commission to conduct an immediate investigation to find out why this is happening repeatedly in Houston, Texas,” Abbott said in an interview with Bloomberg TV from Asia, where he is on an extended trade mission. “There should be no blackout there.”

The target of Abbott’s ire was CenterPoint Energy, a power transmission company that serves the greater Houston area, where the outages were concentrated.

Jason Ryan, CEO of CenterPoint, appeared before the Public Utilities Commission on Thursday and was questioned about the outages and what was being done to restore power.

More:CenterPoint and Entergy face harsh criticism on social media over response to Houston power outage

“We know we have a lot of work to do. We’re not going to stop the work until it’s completed,” Ryan told commissioners. “Our customers who are not only without power, but are also suffering significant property damage from the trees that we’ve talked about being uprooted, our sincere condolences and our sincere sympathy for our community.”

In his Bloomberg interview, Abbott said the results of any investigation should be forwarded to the Legislature, which could recommend remedial action once lawmakers return to Austin in January for the 2025 session.

“I want to find out if there was a structural failure in the power system,” Abbott said. “Was that the cause? If so, what needs to be done to fix it, or was that a staffing issue because there weren’t enough power personnel at all the right locations to restore power?”

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