What did Paxton offer, to sue CenterPoint?

They've been crapping the bed for years. Got worse when Dave Lesar took over. Talk about a dumdum

Where's the blame for Lina? Isn't she in charge of Emergency Operations for all of Harris county? Wasn't she in Cancun?

what do you mean that this is all they have to plan for?

swimmerbabe11 said:

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what do you mean that this is all they have to plan for?

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They put in infrastructure and plan for storms. Thats it

Well, it's pretty obvious they do not plan for tree trimming. Or plan for maintenace of poles. Or plan maintenance of transformers. Or plan for upgrades/maintenance of distribution lines.

I think it is pretty obvious they do not plan for anything besides quarterly reports to the board and shareholders.

Centerpoint has had issues with inadequate maintenance, of both trees/vegetation and equipment, for a very long time.

I think issues have just been isolated to a few specific areas. Where I am in Spring, we have had ongoing issues with them for years. Between Oct 2022 and Sept 2023, my power went out over 30 times (that doesn't count the flickers) for a total of 78 hours.

Once we finally got their attention (which took the better part of 9 months), our area rep admitted that they don't have the budget or the staff to do preventative maintenance.

They stopped doing outage updates last summer (during the outage from the June storm). We were out for 46 hours and never got a single update about the progress of restoration. I had subsequent multi-hour outages that were not due to weather that Centerpoint denied even happened.

There was an article about it in the paper. Those of us quoted called out both the communication issues and the lack of preparedness as very concerning. We expressed concern that Centerpoint would not be able to respond sufficiently if/when a hurricane hit because they can't keep our lights on or be bothered to communicate in perfect weather.

Sadly, I knew this was what it was going to take to make people realize how bad they are.

Meh, I'm sure some amount of criticism is deserved. But if CenterPoint did all of the maintenance, repairs and mitigation that I see people crying for our electric bills would be 3-4X what they are now.

Bottom line: This is the gulf coast. We get storms. Don't be surprised when storms come, floods happen, and power goes out. Stop waiting for "they" to do something. Prepare and take care of your own needs.

texasaggie2015 said:

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Which part of Spring are you in again? I remember it being not far from me. Just curious as we compare power restoration statuses.

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77389, just off Kuykendahl in Creekside Park (east). I got power back at 8 pm last night.

I expected this storm to knock out power for a few days. But my dealings with Centerpoint previous to this had dropped my confidence level in them to zero. They can't manage small, localized outages, and they are non-responsive to customers.

Their MO is to leave customers in the dark - both literally and figuratively.

NoahAg said:

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Meh, I'm sure some amount of criticism is deserved. But if CenterPoint did all of the maintenance, repairs and mitigation that I see people crying for our electric bills would be 3-4X what they are now.

Bottom line: This is the gulf coast. We get storms. Don't be surprised when storms come, floods happen, and power goes out. Stop waiting for "they" to do something. Prepare and take care of your own needs.

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You're the type of customer that Centerpoint is banking on. One who gets screwed ten times over up the ass and doesn't complain.

NoahAg said:

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Meh, I'm sure some amount of criticism is deserved. But if CenterPoint did all of the maintenance, repairs and mitigation that I see people crying for our electric bills would be 3-4X what they are now.

Bottom line: This is the gulf coast. We get storms. Don't be surprised when storms come, floods happen, and power goes out. Stop waiting for "they" to do something. Prepare and take care of your own needs.

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Agree that people need to take care of their own needs....

BUT Centerpoint can't cry that it doesn't have the budget for maintenance when it's a monopoly that's raking in profits. They need to do the job.

There is one small area close to me that had a 46 hour outage last June, 15 hours of outages in Sept (we don't know why), 4 days (I don't know the exact amount of time) of outages after the derecho in May, and I think they are still out from this storm (I was out for 90 hours).

I had all of those same outages except the derecho.

That's not sustainable, and Centerpoint can't just blame the weather.

NoahAg said:

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Meh, I'm sure some amount of criticism is deserved. But if CenterPoint did all of the maintenance, repairs and mitigation that I see people crying for our electric bills would be 3-4X what they are now.

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Centerpoint had had record years of profits and the things you're describing are basic maintenance. They have a monopoly on providing a critical public utility to the 4th largest metro area in the country and they are prioritizing profits over transmission maintenance and you're defending that?

My hood, 77386. Spring Trails, Harmony, and Benders Landing. It's like living in a third world country.

Saw this on X. Infuriating:


Generator Salesman of the Century, Jason Wells.

At this point, nearly 2 million Houston area residents want to know exactly where this fella, Jason Wells, and his $37 million per year compensation package is located right this very damn minute.

We simply want to turn off his power, keep it off, and let him report it over and over and over and never turn it back on.

He needs to see line trucks on his street, outside his house, up on a poll beside his house on both sides and still not get power...day after day after day. He needs some special high intensity training (****) and a lot of it.

Jason Wells, CEO of CenterPoint Energy, has destroyed the best monopoly any SOB could have ever been given. And, he was given one of the greatest monopolies in the USA...the Greater Houston Metro power infrastructure and retail customer base.

Jason was a CFO and it shows. CFO's are notoriously miserable "customer service" executives.

CFO's:
-cut costs
-squeeze service providers and workers
-**** customers out of good quality reliable dependable service
-are sufficiently dispassionate to fellow humans and make excellent concentration camp managers

They only and solely live to make a few pennies more...just a little higher profit. They are special kind of psychopath that justify ANY shared misery they can deal others if they can make another 1/4% profit. And, that is exactly what this MF'r has done.

Here is the best part: When the power is not on, you don't get charged. Except for the tariff and surcharges mandated by the Texas Legislature on your bill. Yes, that's right...if your power were off for 30 days, you'd still get a bill for receiving no electrical service whatsoever.

Energy company lobbyists made sure you were gonna pay no matter what. You see, you thought they were your politicians...they are really Centerpoint's politicians...aren't they.

I spent the afternoon speaking with the Linemen sitting in parking lots around the Greater Houston area. I likely spoke with about 100 of them.

They told me...ALL of them told me that they have never worked a storm recovery that was so mismanaged in their lives. They told me they were only being given 1 to 2 service tickets per truck per day. A typical storm recovery lineman truck would work 100 service tickets per day in steady progression rolling through neighborhoods following the power lines, knocking on doors and making sure every home and building was turned on.

Now, you have to understand that for many decades of my life, we had a High Voltage line division of our electrical contracting company. Not only did we build power plants that generate electricity, commercial, manufacturing and industrial complexes and the power distribution grid, we serviced them all over the southern USA. In other words, I know the business, I know high line work and I know this particular speciality of the electricians business very well.

Here is what I discovered:

1) Centerpoint is a crisis management disaster internally

2) NO lineman from the 1000's that came to Houston to help out can touch a power poll without a "service ticket" from Centerpoint central command.

3) Multiple Linemen set eyeballs on a tripped line fuse disconnect, but, can not touch it (a one minute reconnect with a fiberglass hot stick) because Centerpoint central command is so miserably disorganized they won't allow them to do it while on site. Each of these Linemen reported this to Centerpoint over the last 3 days. I know, because I stood beside them while they both called in the service request or entered it on their phone. I have reported myself over 100 times and counting.

4) Rather than allow the linemen to complete electrical service to any particular location before leaving the site and trust the men on the ground, a DEI expert at Centerpoint using enlightened pronouns is making sure the misery is shared everywhere all the time.

5) Linemen that drove from the Carolinas, North Texas, Florida and other regions told me over and over and over that they have sat in parking lots for days only being assigned to work one or two tickets per day. They are astounded...baffled at this nonsensical method creating long lasting perpetual shared disaster.

Look, these guys travel all over working storm situations and they told me this should have been a 2 day "All services restored" situation. They told me Centerpoint is so badly mismanaged, it could be 2 weeks at the rate they are working and that clearly Centerpoint has NO idea what they are doing.

One Lineman Crew Captain told me he had been a lineman his entire life and he has never seen a worse run, more disorganized storm recovery in his life. He is 60 now and about to retire.

Remember, we were in the line business for decades...a lineman's truck typically would work 18 hours non-stop in rolling progression to restore power turning on every single home and business as they rolled. They simply called in work tickets as they went down the power lines making sure every one's power got turned on promptly.

The geniuses at Centerpoint central command have ****ed this up so badly that now 2 million Houstonians understand public executions and want to bring it back. Hanging a psychopath from a bridge for all to see is something we see in a 3rd world country, yet, everywhere I go, this is what people are actively discussing about Centerpoint's CEO. I know...its gruesome, right?

In Summary: Centerpoint forgot they are in the customer service business and the WOKE culture running this **** show will require electro shock therapy and a lot of it to ever recognize how badly they've ****ed Houstonians. The Centerpoint Board of Directors made this bad decision and are culpable, brazen and smug. They donate so much to your and my elected officials they think they own them and forgot we their customers and that we elected them. Let's remind them they are in the customer service business and move to order the break up and sell off of the monopoly that is Centerpoint to smaller regional service providers built on customer service.

They are a regulated monopoly. Nothing will change with them or Entergy until the Public Utility Commission actually does its job and reject rate increases or lowers their return on equity percentage until measurable improvements are made. All the executives care about is pleasing the shareholders (and they own a lot of stock). Believe me, I have sat in meetings with folks like this and heard "we can't put that on the shareholders." Do your job Abbott appointed commissioners!