Austin, TX
Texas governor criticizes Houston energy
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The majority of Houston outages that followed Hurricane Beryl should be fixed within the next two days, the city’s main utility company said Monday as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to punish CenterPoint Energy even after the lights come back.
What You Need To Know
- The Texas Public Utility Commission announced Monday it had launched an investigation into CenterPoint’s storm preparation and response afer Gov. Greg Abbott demanded answers
- Hurricane Beryl created high winds that brought down power lines and knocked out power to about 2.7 million homes and businesses. CenterPoint reported Monday that it had restored power to more than 2 million customers
- The governor has given the utility until the end of July to submit plans to protect the power supply through the rest of what could be an active hurricane season, as well as trim trees and vegetation that threaten power lines
- More than 200,000 remained without power on Monday
The Texas Public Utility Commission, the state’s regulatory agency, announced Monday it had launched an investigation Abbott demanded into CenterPoint’s storm preparation and response as hundreds of thousands of residents sweltered without power for more than a week after the storm. The governor has given the utility until the end of July to submit plans to protect the power supply through the rest of what could be an active hurricane season, as well as trim trees and vegetation that threaten power lines.
But some energy experts question whether Abbott and the Texas regulators, whose leaders are appointed by the governor, have done enough before now to get tough on utilities or make transmission lines more resilient in the nation’s biggest energy producing state.
“What CenterPoint is showing us by its repeated failure to provide power, is they seem to be just incapable of doing their job,” Abbott said Monday in Houston.
Spokespeople for CenterPoint, which has defended its response and pace of restoring outages, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Monday.
A week after Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane — toppling power lines, uprooting trees and causing branches to crash into power lines — the damage from the storm and the prolonged outages have again put the resiliency of Texas’ power grid under scrutiny.
In 2021, a winter storm plunged the state into a deep freeze, knocking out power to millions of residents and pushing Texas’ grid to the brink of total collapse. Following the deadly blackout, Abbott and state lawmakers vowed changes that would better ensure that Texans would not be left in the dark in dangerous cold and heat.
Unlike that crisis — which was caused by failing power generation — Beryl created high winds that brought down power lines and knocked out power to about 2.7 million homes and businesses. Most were concentrated in the Houston area, where CenterPoint reported Monday that it had restored power to more than 2 million customers. Still, more than 200,000 remained without power.
Houston-area residents have sweltered in heat and humidity, stood in long lines for gas, food and water, and trekked to community centers to find air conditioning. Hospitals have seen a spike in patients with heat-related illnesses and carbon monoxide poisoning caused by improper use of home generators.
“This isn’t a failure of the entire system,” Abbott said. “This is an indictment of one company that’s failed to do its job.”
In a special meeting of the Houston City Council on Monday, resident Alin Boswell said he was on day eight without power and had not seen anyone from CenterPoint in his neighborhood until that morning. He said the city and the company should have known the potential for damage after storms in May knocked out power to more than 1 million.
“You all and CenterPoint had a preview of this debacle in May,” Boswell told council members.
Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, said the failures extend beyond CenterPoint. He said regulators have been reluctant to ensure that transmission lines are more resilient and trees are sufficiently trimmed.
Hirs said Abbott and other leaders who are solely zeroing in on the utility after Beryl are looking for a scapegoat.
“Of course, not one of them have a mirror around,” he said. “It’s not CenterPoint exclusively. The regulatory compact has totally broken down.”
CenterPoint has at least 10 years of vegetation management reports on file with Texas regulators. In April, the company filed a 900-page report on long-term plans and expenses that would be needed to make its power system more resilient, from tree trimming to withstanding storms and flooding to cybersecurity attacks.
In a report filed May 1, CenterPoint said it had spent nearly $35 million on tree removal and trimming in 2023. It said it would target efforts this year across more than 3,500 miles of its estimated 29,000 miles of overhead power lines in 2024.
Vegetation management remains a key issue for avoiding another power outage when the next storm hits, said Michael Webber, a University of Texas mechanical engineering professor with a focus on clean energy technology. But it’s just one ongoing problem for power providers.
Policy makers must rebuild Texas’ energy grid to adapt to its changing climate, Webber said.
“We’ve designed our system for weather of the past,” he said.
The utility has defended its preparation for the storm and said that it has brought in about 12,000 additional workers from outside Houston. It has said it would have been unsafe to preposition those workers inside the predicted storm impact area before Beryl made landfall.
In a message to CenterPoint customers Sunday night, CEO Jason Wells wrote that the company had made “remarkable” progress.
“The strong pace of the restoration is a testament to our preparation (and) investments we have made in the system,” Wells wrote.
Austin, TX
Appeals court rules Texas can require public schools to display Ten Commandments in class
DALLAS (AP) — Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday in a victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into schools.
WATCH: Texas school board approves new course material that includes Bible passages
It sets up a potential clash at the U.S. Supreme Court over the issue in the future.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said in the decision that the law did not violate the First Amendment, which protects religious freedom and prevents the government from establishing a religion.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, called the ruling “a major victory for Texas and our moral values.”
“The Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it’s important that students learn from them every single day,” Paxton said.
Organizations representing the families who challenged the law, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that they were “extremely disappointed” by the decision.
“The court’s ruling goes against fundamental First Amendment principles and binding U.S. Supreme Court authority. The First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction. This decision tramples those rights,” the statement said.
The law is among the pushes by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to incorporate religion into public schools. Critics say it violates the separation of church and state while backers argue that the Ten Commandments are historical and part of the foundation of U.S. law.
The ruling, which reverses a district court’s judgment, comes after the full court heard arguments in January in the Texas case and a similar case in Louisiana. The appeals court in February cleared the way for Louisiana’s law, requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 12-6 to lift a block that a lower court first placed on the law in 2024.
Texas law took effect on Sept. 1, marking the largest attempt in the nation to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools. About two dozen school districts had been barred from posting them after federal judges issued injunctions in two cases against the law but went up in many classrooms across the state as districts paid to have the posters printed themselves or accepted donations.
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Waymo self-driving car navigating city traffic, San Francisco, California, August 20, 2024. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles is launching a new authorization system for companies looking to operate automated motor vehicles.
A new goes into effect next month that requires companies using automated vehicles to be authorized by TxDMV with the following requirements:
- Complies with all applicable Texas traffic and motor vehicle laws
- Is equipped with a recording device
- Uses an automated driving system that complies with federal law
- Can achieve minimal risk condition in the event of a system failure
- Has a proper title and registration
- Maintains motor vehicle insurance
The process allows companies to submit their applications online through the Texas Motor Carrier Credentialing System.
The new laws outlined in Senate Bill 2807 go into effect on May 28.
Automated vehicles in Texas
The backstory:
Autonomous driving services are already operating in major Texas cities. Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio are all serviced by the driverless ride-share company Waymo.
In Austin, the service has received dozens of complaints about vehicles stalling, speeding and crashing.
There have also been complaints of vehicles illegally passing school buses.
In March, Swedish company Einride announced plans to bring autonomous freight trucks to Central Texas.
The Source: Information in this article comes from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and previous FOX Local reporting.
AUSTIN, Texas – A man was charged with intoxication manslaughter after a crash in East Austin.
The backstory:
According to an arrest affidavit, on April 17, around 1:31 a.m., officers responded to a crash in the 2800 block of East Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
An investigation revealed the driver, Jalen Carter, 32, was driving a 2026 white Nissan at an estimated speed of 100 mph in a 45 mph zone. The car “bottomed out” at a train crossing and lost control. The car then hit a utility pole, hit a bus station, and five parked cars before finally coming to a stop.
A passenger in the car, Carter’s mother, suffered a serious hand injury.
One witness told an officer that Carter had been smoking marijuana about 30 minutes before driving and was acting “abnormal and paranoid.” An officer described Carter’s eyes as bloodshot and glassy.
An officer said he also “exhibited cyclic behavior” and was alternating between grabbing his mother and falling unconscious.
When officers tried talking to Carter, they said he was uncooperative and combative. They also said he ignored verbal commands and had to be removed from his mother.
Carter and his mother were taken to a local hospital. His mother lost her thumb and required emergency surgery.
At the hospital, Cater was so aggressive that it took about 10 people, including four security guards, to hold him down. He was eventually sedated and intubated.
Carter was later charged with intoxication assault.
The Source: Information from an arrest affidavit
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