It’s the Republicans’ world at the state Capitol this legislative session, but Democratic senators are still hoping for momentum on measures that could prevent future long-term power outages in Houston and offer protection for utility workers while they’re on the job making repairs after a storm.
There’s a problem, though. A slate of “Beryl bills” filed in response to last summer’s hurricane — an event that caused at least 22 deaths and an economic loss of about $32 billion — were filed early and pushed aside for months while the Senate debated Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s priority bills on school vouchers.
One of the Beryl bills was filed by Democrat Molly Cook, 33, who was elected in a May 2024 special election when John Whitmire resigned to run for Houston mayor. She’s the first woman to represent the Senate’s 15th district and the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to the Texas Senate. So what’s that got to do with power outages? Nothing, but Cook isn’t one to shy away from a challenge.
“For our constituents in SD 15, we are working on bread-and-butter issues that are going to get bipartisan support but that also never means that we leave behind our affirmative vision of what a really, truly safe and healthy Texas would look like,” Cook said. “We’ve got bills to protect the LGBTQ+ community. We’ve got an entire package on women’s healthcare. Of course, we fought against vouchers and we’ve got a couple of bills that we think would be really important for education in Texas. I don’t ever want folks to lose hope or feel like we have to abandon our values and our principles. We don’t.”
The Democratic senator, an emergency room nurse, was among the first to pre-file bills ahead of the 89th Texas legislative session, which began in January. Cook’s SB 270 is pending a hearing in the Business and Commerce Committee. A package of six Beryl bills from Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, was championed early this year by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle but two of the six bills have already died in committees.
Cook, however, remains optimistic.
“There are several senators, all from the Beryl region that was affected, who have filed various forms of bills, some of which frankly have overlapping content, and I think the majority have been referred to Business and Commerce, maybe some to Health and Human [Services],” Cook said. “I think we’ll see what shakes out and of course, we know it’s not uncommon for a senior legislator’s bill to move and for people to roll things in as amendments. I’m very hopeful that the delegation from the region affected is going to be able to deliver for folks.”
Although forecasters are calling for an “average” Atlantic hurricane season through September, it’s imperative to get in front of the next big storm, Cook said. SB 270 calls for a study of the costs and benefits of burying distribution power lines in metropolitan areas. Such initiatives have been stymied in the past for flood-prone areas like Houston. It’s expensive, and logistical challenges exist, but most agree it would improve resilience to storms.
Even though Abbott activated state emergency resources last week as flash flooding threatened the state, University of Houston political science lecturer Nancy Sims said Texans have short memories when it comes to the devastation caused by past storms. Those who can afford to have purchased generators and those who can’t will tough it out through another hurricane season, she said.
Cook said there’s plenty of important legislation that’s in the “watch-and-see stage” and that’s not necessarily an indicator that it lacks support.
“These bills are bipartisan,” she said. “It’s not an ideological issue that would be difficult to get heard. We’ve heard the lieutenant governor speak on the record pretty powerfully about what happened. We’re just talking to the committee chairs on everything. It’s almost time now to start pushing for hearings, and we’ll see what happens.”
The 140-day legislative session is more than half complete, expected to end June 2 unless special sessions are called. Only the governor can call a special session, but as Cook pointed out, high-ranking legislators have criticized CenterPoint Energy and expressed interest in strengthening the grid.
Abbott demanded accountability from CenterPoint after Beryl, asking that the energy company produce an immediate plan to improve power reliability. CenterPoint responded by amending its resilience plan to accelerate vegetation reduction around power lines, implement a cloud-based outage tracker, and increase staffing in its call center by 165 percent during storms.
Cook said she’ll support any legislation that “empowers the [Public Utility Commission] to hold CenterPoint and other energy providers accountable for hardening our grid.”
“I’m not an ego-driven senator; I just want to get good policy passed and I’m a team player,” Cook said. “Whatever it takes to make that happen, we’ll do it.”
Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston said last year there is widespread support for holding CenterPoint accountable.
“You can’t be the energy capital of the world if your public utility can’t keep the lights on,” he said.
Longtime Senator Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, also is waiting for committee hearings on Senate Bills 481 through 486, pre-filed ahead of the current session. SB 482, the most widely supported and likely to pass — a measure that ensures utility workers who are attacked while trying to restore electricity are treated with the same protection as first responders — has not been set for a hearing in the Criminal Justice Committee.
“If someone assaults [a utility worker] and they’re convicted, the penalty will be greater,” Alvarado said in November when she filed SB 482. The senator declined to comment last week through a spokesman, who said it’s too soon to make public statements while the legislation is under review.
CenterPoint spokesman Logan Anderson said the energy company is grateful for the proposed legislation.
“The safety of our employees, contractors, mutual assistance crews and support personnel is CenterPoint Energy’s top priority,” Anderson said in an emailed statement. “Following Hurricane Beryl, we experienced increasing calls for and actual incidents of criminal actions toward our CenterPoint frontline workers who were working around the clock to restore power in difficult conditions. These unfortunate events were dangerous for our workers and slowed down restoration efforts. We have worked closely with law enforcement and local officials to support the safety of our crews, and we will continue to collaborate with our community partners to strengthen protections for utility workers. We thank Sen. Alvarado for her efforts to protect utility workers through this legislation.”
Alvarado’s SB 483, which protects certain utility proprietary customer information from being shared, was slated last week for the Business and Commerce Committee. Another Alvarado bill, SB 481, scheduled for a hearing in the Health and Human Services Committee, would ensure emergency preparedness and response plans for nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Neither bill was discussed in committee. Sims said that means they’re dead. However, there’s a chance that the “spirit” of Alvarado’s legislation could be folded into other bills.
Storm resilience is also being discussed at the national level as at least nine candidates have entered the race to represent Houston in the 18th Congressional District. Christian Menefee, the Harris County attorney who recently announced his bid, said disaster recovery is one of his campaign priorities.
“We’re on the Gulf Coast,” he said. “Over the past seven or eight years we have seen storm after storm after storm. We know that when these storms come they impact real communities, they flood homes, they take lives and they cause billions of dollars in damage. I would do all that I can to ensure that we are more resilient, to ensure that when the disaster happens, resources flow more freely into our communities and to ensure that we have a direct line to FEMA because Lord knows we need it.”
