State Senator Paul Bettencourt Discusses Centerpoin Energy With Jimmy Barrett

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Spring actually tom Ball technically that lost their power
on Sunday. We're still dealing with some issues from the
repairs that were instituted by Centerpoint and some of the
subcontractors States under Paul bettencoord joins US. I don't know
if you've heard any stories like that, Senator of some
of the repair work that was done that maybe it
was just kind of done on the quick and now
they're going to have to go back and repair things

(00:21):
over again in a few spots.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, Jimmy, the whole way that Center Point has been
functioning is literally the same for the last one hundred years,
which is you take wooden poles, if they're broken, you
replace them. So this is like a destroy replace model,
and that's what's wrong with all of this. There's a

(00:44):
really good story that I've got posted up on my
Facebook account at Paul Betton Cord. You can see it
at Paul Bettencord dot com. That is from an investigative
reporter at The Chronicle who basically ran through what happened
at Florida power Line, what happened in California, and their
National Association presidents basically saying center Point is way way

(01:08):
behind the rest of the country and you can see it.
And they just had a Category one Hurricane Debbie, and
they had far less power outages than we did on
a per capita basis.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
In their CEO come from Pacific Gas and Electric, and
they had their fair share problems, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, he did. And part of it is it's like,
you know, he's the third CEO in three years, they've
had three executive chairmen, three heads of the electrical group.
The last one just got fired before anybody even met her.
And so there's no question that the Center Point now
has been unmasked at being behind their peers in the country.

(01:51):
In fact, this storm that just happened in Florida, their
maximum power outage was like three hundred thousand and from
what I stand, will have those back up in just
a matter of days. So once again, you know, I'm
tired of these comparisons that we I've been getting from Centerpoint,
just really aggravating. Oh we're doing a better job than I. Oh,

(02:13):
We're we're coming back faster than I. Oh, come on, ike,
was a was it one time? A Category four storm?

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Right?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
You know, and over a huge area, And you know,
they need to wake up because I tell you, the
legislature is, you know, is now awake on this. Lieutenant
Governor you talk about me having a dog with you know,
a bone. Uh. He wants that eight hundred million dollars
back on those you know, unreasonably priced and unnecessary you

(02:42):
know generators. H And already the governor's taking their you know,
they're hey, how fast are we going to put stuff back?
You know, to harden it. It just got out of
red line pencil and marked it up. But no, I've
heard about the Kroger's and you know we've got this
says they're out of power again. You know, every time

(03:03):
a restaurant does that, Jimmy, they have to dump their
after twelve hours, they got to dump their food.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Right exactly. Well, certa Point put out a forty item list,
which I found rather laughable. Of things that they claim
that they're going to be doing better after this last storm.
These are all things they should have been doing all along,
which is, you know, which is kind of silly to
begin with. But what I think what really frost is
this actually kind of frosts me is just as much

(03:28):
the Public Utility Commission evidently is sending out a questionnaire
to Houston area residents about the storm and what they
think went right and what they think went wrong. Does
the Public Utility Commission really need to hear any more
from uestonians about what went wrong with Beryl in Center Point?

Speaker 2 (03:48):
The head of it, the PC is basically saying that
they have end the story that I talked about today.
They did not do a good job of overseeing the
public utilities well no offense, uh, And that's that's what's
going to be changed with legislation. They're gonna have top
down guidelines how to measure this. We're going to put

(04:11):
them where they should have been, which is, don't approve
eight hundred million dollars generators and start busting butts on
people that aren't keeping up with that technology. I mean,
this idea that we don't have the composite polls that
Florida has is preposterous. The idea that we don't have
metal tops and win resistant wires up to one hundred
and thirty two miles an hour is ridiculous because it's

(04:35):
in other states, it's even in other utilities, and Centerpoint
has just been sitting on their ass not doing anything.
And that's why we're going to keep you grinding on
this bone until they cough up what they're supposed to
be doing. That's what's so maddening about it, Jimmy. They
knew it and they didn't do it.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's right. And those composite polls, by the way, have
been going up in the Galveston area for quite some time,
so yeah, we've got them in the state. They just
aren't using them at center point. Senator, keep fighting the
good fight, Thank you, sir. State Senator Paul Bettencourt