While OG&E workers remain in Houston, Texas helping CenterPoint Energy restore power following Hurricane Beryl, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is putting more pressure on the utility.
He already had criticized CenterPoint Energy for not quickly restoring power to millions of customers before taking his latest step—putting a July 31 deadline for the firm to comply with his request to provide answers to his questions. If it doesn’t, he’s threatening to issue an executive order to force the utility to make improvements.
CNN reported the governor has threatened to “impose my own requirements on CenterPoint that are geared to keep power on through hurricane season until the next legislative session.” He made the threat during a Sunday news conference.
More than 293,000 customers were still without power as of Monday morning. More than 100 workers from Oklahoma Gas and Electric were sent last week to assist CenterPoint Energy with the restoration of power around the Houston area.
CenterPoint Energy might be able top point to the lack of support from the federal government. E&E Energy reported the utility asked the U.S. Energy Department last year for $100 million in federal funding to harden its electric poles and wires and was rejected. CenterPoint now contends the outages from the hurricane are “largely related to” the same infrastructure.
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