The CenterPoint and GOP Thing
This is from the Chron:
CenterPoint Energy expects to incur as much as $1.8 billion in costs from its efforts to restore power after May’s severe storms and July’s Hurricane Beryl, company executives said during a second-quarter earnings call Tuesday in which it reported a steep jump in profits over the year earlier.
The company said it would seek approval from the Public Utility Commission of Texas to issue bonds to recover $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion of its storm-related costs, Chief Financial Officer Christopher Foster told investors and analysts. Foster estimated residential customers could see a 2% increase in their electricity bills for the next 15 years to pay down the debt, which carries interest.
Here is the entire read:
CenterPoint plans to seek rate hike to pass storm costs to customers (houstonchronicle.com).
This is also from the Chron:
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Tuesday said a state panel regulating electric companies should revoke its decision to allow CenterPoint to raise rates to cover the $800 million price tag of massive generators that sat idle as Hurricane Beryl knocked power from more than 2 million Houston area customers.
If the Public Utility Commission does not revisit the decision, Patrick said, the Senate would pass legislation clawing back the rate increase.
Here is the entire read: Dan Patrick says CenterPoint should shoulder cost of $800M generators (houstonchronicle.com).
This is also from the Chron:
A state lawmaker said Monday he was considering pushing legislation to recoup some of the $800 million CenterPoint Energy spent on massive generators that sat idle as Hurricane Beryl knocked power from more than 2 million Houston area customers.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt said the company had “defrauded” rate payers, who were now strapped with growing utility bills after state regulators allowed CenterPoint to recoup the cost of the generators — plus a 6.5% profit. The utility company has already raised the average residential customer’s bill by about $1 per month — and the rate hikes could jump another $3 per month in the coming years.
Here is the entire read: Senator floats recouping money CenterPoint spent on idle generators (houstonchronicle.com).
And this is in the Chron:
Ask CenterPoint leaders what took out power to almost 2.3 million Houston-area customers this month, and they’ll tell you the same thing: the trees.
CEO Jason Wells. Executive vice president Jason Ryan. Senior vice president Darin Carroll. They’ve said it on television, in newspapers and in press releases sent in the days after Hurricane Beryl, blaming toppled trees and broken branches for leaving over 80% of its area customers without power, some for more than a week.
According to Texas A&M Forest Service, half of Houston’s trees were damaged or destroyed from the storm. The entity in charge of keeping many of those trees off power lines: CenterPoint.
Here is the entire read: Is it CenterPoint’s fault that tree limbs caused Beryl power outages? (houstonchronicle.com).
The State of Texas has created the environment in which CenterPoint operates. CenterPoint has pretty much had a green light, thanks to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and the Texas Legislature. A PUC and Texas Legislature that has been controlled by the GOP for the past few decades.
I guess a couple of million CenterPoint customers who lost their power for days and some for over a week finally got the Lt. Governor and Sen. Bettencourt to finally get on the side of the customers.
Welcome to the party. We will see how long that lasts.
The featured photo is the soggy Chron front page the morning Beryl showed up. We were not prepared.
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Vice President Kamala Harris will visit H-Town today.
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I had a couple of Dollar Dogs last night. We lost and are now in second place.
