Lawmakers shouted from the Capitol steps last summer that they would hold CenterPoint Energy accountable for swift disaster response. Protection would be ensured for utility workers and backup generators would be ready so Houstonians wouldn’t be forced to survive in the dark for weeks.
The effort was well-intended at the time, as Hurricane Beryl had just ripped through neighborhoods in the Greater Houston area, leaving 2 million residents without power. The storm was preceded by a deadly derecho, a rare but massive windstorm.
But by the time the legislative session began in January, other priorities such as school vouchers took precedence. Just one of Sen. Carol Alvarado’s “Beryl bills” will be signed into law by the governor. Most died in committee.
Alvarado, D-Houston, filed a slate of bills that would require nursing homes to maintain emergency generators, protect utility workers from assault during disasters, improve communication during emergencies, include warning labels on portable generators, create clear duties of care for landlords who rent to senior citizens and Texans with disabilities, and increase penalties for abandonment of children, seniors and the disabled during declared disasters.
The one that gained the most traction and bipartisan support was the linemen protection bill, SB 482. It passed both chambers and takes effect Sept. 1. The other five were left behind, perhaps to be revived in a future session. The Texas Legislature convenes every two years.
Nancy Sims, a political science lecturer at the University of Houston, said there’s value in introducing a bill knowing it won’t make it out of committee because then the author can say, “I tried to fix it and nobody listened to me. I fought for my neighbors.”
Under the new SB 482 law, assault on a utility worker is elevated to a third-degree felony and harassment is a Class A misdemeanor when offenses are committed while a lineman is working during a declared disaster or in areas under evacuation orders. It also applies to pipeline workers and those in the telecommunications industry, Alvarado said.
After hearing from mutual aid utility workers and their union representatives that they wouldn’t work another hurricane season in Houston due to the way they were treated during Beryl, SB 482 was approved with overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate.
“When linemen come to Texas to help us recover from disasters, we need to have their backs,” Alvarado said in April when the measure cleared the Senate. “Today I passed a bill to make their safety our priority. We’re enhancing the penalty for assaulting a utility worker — the same protection given to first responders.”
Ed Allen, business manager and financial secretary for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ Houston chapter, said in an emailed statement that the union pushed hard for the bill’s passage.
“Our members went through hell following Hurricane Beryl — enduring threats and even assault — all while trying to get the power back on for folks,” Allen said. “This is about safety. Our repair crews work tirelessly during natural disasters, and this bill will keep them a bit more protected.”
But why didn’t the other Beryl bills make it out of committee?
Sims said legislators have short memories. The public isn’t fired up about air conditioning in the winter and they’re not worried about hurricane season when they haven’t seen a drop of rain in months.
“The lobby happens, and the session falls from January to May so the voters are not writing their legislators every week to strengthen the grid and make sure nursing homes have generators,” Sims said. “These issues will pop back up again the moment we have another storm, but we don’t have another session again for a year and a half.”
Ironically, though, the time to prepare for hurricane season is now, experts say. This week is Hurricane Preparedness Week in Texas, according to a proclamation from Gov. Greg Abbott.
“It is crucial that every family, business, and community take proactive measures and stock up on emergency supplies to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property as hurricane season approaches,” Abbott said in a press release. “By taking the time now to prepare for any devastating and powerful storms that may reach our shores, we can help foster a safer and more secure future for our state.”
While Alvarado went one-for-five with her Beryl bill package, she’s listed as a co-author on another approved measure introduced by Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown. Senate Bill 1789, will require the Public Utility Commission to adopt standards for the “structural integrity of transmission and distribution poles,” allowing the regulator to penalize utilities for violating standards. There are currently no statewide requirements for utilities to regularly inspect and replace their power poles.
A proposal from Sen. Molly Cook, D- Houston, to study the costs and benefits of burying power lines died in committee. A similar House Bill, HB 842, authored by Rep. Suleman Lalani, D-Sugar Land, passed and becomes effective Sept. 1.
CenterPoint Energy promised after Beryl to bury an additional 400 miles of power lines and says it has made good progress in doing so, but it’s expensive and doesn’t necessarily mitigate power outages. It also makes power lines difficult to access in flood-prone areas like Houston, experts say.
Overall, it was not a successful session for disaster recovery legislation, Sims said.
“From Greg Abbott’s point of view, this was a pretty successful session,” she said. “If you’re a consumer in Texas, it was probably not the most successful session. If you’re a public school advocate, not so much, but you did get teacher pay raises and more money in the budget. It’s a hard thing to define because everybody will define it differently.”
And even though senior citizens accounted for three-fourths of Hurricane Beryl’s 42 deaths, lawmakers dismissed the need to require generators in assisted living facilities and nursing homes.
Alvarado’s SB 481, along with House Bills 1199, 863, and 1467 — each of which mandated some variation on a requirement for generators in senior living or nursing homes — failed to make it out of committee.
Senate Bill 732, authored by Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, also failed. The legislation would have required generators or other power sources for certain housing developments that receive an allocation of low-income housing tax credits.
As rain fell and power outages were reported throughout the Bayou City earlier this week, some lawmakers pointed out that CenterPoint Energy doesn’t need laws on the books to do better this hurricane season. The energy company says it’s already improved communication, added more dispatchers and donated generators to community centers and senior facilities in its 12-county service region.
Don Daigler, CenterPoint senior vice president for emergency preparedness and response, said the energy company is working with emergency managers, technology providers and community leaders to practice and improve its coordinated response to extreme weather.
“Our critical hurricane response exercise builds on the actions we’ve been taking every day since last summer to improve how we prepare for and respond to emergencies, so that we can be there for the Greater Houston area when our communities need us most,” he said.
CenterPoint doesn’t answer to customers; it answers to shareholders, Sims said, noting that grid-strengthening legislation could and should be targeted toward the governor-appointed Public Utility Commission.
“[CenterPoint] is always going to do what is in the best interest of their profit-driven business,” she said. “We have no choice but to use them. They’re a monopoly, but any improvements they make on their own have to be factored into how they affect their shareholders.”
