A Senate select committee questioned Jason Wells, the CEO and chief operating officer of CenterPoint Energy, for hours on Monday regarding the utility's response to Hurricane Beryl. Wells resisted suggestions that he should resign.
Houston Senator Paul Bettencourt, among others, grilled Wells on issues ranging from CenterPoint's failure to restore its outage tracker before Beryl; to the five-year timeframe for CenterPoint to trim back vegetation, which is roughly 4 ½ years from completion; to the usefulness of its $800-million purchase of mobile generators, which to date have gone unused.
"Now, what would you say to the average person," Bettencourt asked, "that you should resign?"
Wells, who said repeatedly that he accepted full responsibility for CenterPoint's failures before, during, and after Beryl, pushed back, arguing such a move would hamstring CenterPoint's efforts to fix the problems that most hurt customers.
"What we have outlined here is an ambitious set of 40 actions to immediately improve resiliency, our communications, and our partnerships this hurricane season," Wells said. "I think if I resign today, we lose momentum on the things that are going to have the best possible impact for the Greater Houston region."
Wells' answers did not appear to satisfy the senators, particularly those from the Houston area, which included Senators Carol Alvarado, Joan Huffman, Lois Kolkhorst, Borris Miles, Mayes Middleton, and Brandon Creighton.
Several members of the Houston delegation pledged before the CEO took the stand to introduce legislation in the next session that would target his and CenterPoint's handling of the storm. Bettencourt, for example, pledged a bill that would claw back ratepayer funds spent on the mobile generators.
CenterPoint is expected to submit a plan for improvements to Governor Greg Abbott sometime on Wednesday, July 31.
Among the others testifying was Houston Mayor John Whitmire, until recently a senator himself. Whitmire asked his former colleagues for help in holding CenterPoint to account, alluding to the company's strong profit margin.
"I'm upset. I don't have any more patience. No more excuses. CenterPoint makes a great return, and they're just going to have to spend it on preparation, operations, and recovery," Whitmire said.
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