Texas senator floats recouping some of $800M CenterPoint spent

AUSTIN -The Houston Chronicle reports that 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. “It’s a big problem, because we’ve got basically these boat anchors strapped around our rate payers for a long period of time,” the Houston Republican said during a contentious hearing where CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells testified that he took “personal responsibility” for the utility’s failings, but said he would not resign.

Bettencourt said he was considering legislation that would “claw back some of this expense,” though he did not say more about what that might entail. Bettencourt accused CenterPoint of choosing to spend money on the generators rather than clearing trees that knocked out power lines, because CenterPoint can make a profit on the generators. CenterPoint has repeatedly blamed toppled trees and broken branches for leaving over 80% of its area customers without power, some for more than a week. “Vegetation management — the utility doesn’t make profit on,” Bettencourt said. “However, they make a profit on generator expenses. If you don’t make a profit on vegetation management, you may reduce those numbers.” The comments came during the first hearing of a special committee tasked with examining the state’s hurricane preparedness and utilities’ response after Beryl. The senators used much of the hearing to air their grievances with CenterPoint, which state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst said had broken the “social contract” with its customers. Senators questioned why the utility could not keep its outage map working, why it was not doing a better job removing trees and why it had sunk so much into generators that were not usable. Bettencourt and state Sen. Charles Schwertner, who chairs the panel, questioned the contract CenterPoint struck for the generators, going so far as to suggest it amounted to “fraud.” Bettencourt said the utility passed over a competing bid with a price tag that was at least 44% lower. “It doesn’t smell good at all,” Schwertner said, noting the company appears to be raking in a roughly $30 million profit on the massive generator purchase. “There’s more to this story that I hope comes out sooner rather than later.”