AUSTIN, Texas – As CenterPoint Energy remains in the hot seat, facing scrutiny for its response to Hurricane Beryl, the CEO has promised the energy giant will do better, but Texas lawmakers are wondering how much of that weight taxpayers will have to carry going forward.

During a hearing Monday held by a special senate committee in Austin, Senator Carol Alvarado asked CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells if the energy giant had any plans to go forward before the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) for a rate increase and what that would look like and how taxpayers would be affected.

In summation, Wells admitted CenterPoint would ask for a rate increase, with the Senator sharing a brief bit of that exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“CenterPoint intends to increase their rates to recoup the cost of recovering from Hurricane Beryl, passing the cost on to the customer,” Alvarado said. “That dog won’t hunt.”

SEE ALSO: ‘We make no excuses:’ CenterPoint CEO sends letter to customers apologizing over Beryl response

Before the exchange shown on social media, Sen. Alvarado hoped to get a look at the bigger picture and asked Wells what CenterPoint looks for when they ask PUC for a rate increase to recoup efforts, noting they have to be “just and reasonable.”

Wells claimed the vast majority is to payback the lineworkers, vegetation management, and people who helped restore power, as well as materials used in the restoration efforts like power poles, and transformers. However, he emphasized the more than 50,000 workforce who helped restore service to over 2 million customers left in the dark for nearly a week.

Some customers, however, didn’t get their power back for more than a week and were forced to live in dangerously hot conditions inside their homes with no air conditioning, while temperatures outside soared into the 90s. Some of them lost their lives to heat illness.

What would a rate increase look like?

In pressing Wells during the hearing, Sen. Alvarado felt uneasy about even a $1 or $2 rate per customer per month “that never goes away,” and asked if the buck would stop there. That’s because CenterPoint already has a contending rate case with the PUC.

“We were required to file this rate case back in March of this year as part of our 2019 rate case for the company,” he said. “We made a commitment to file no later than the middle of March 2024 so we made it earlier this year.”

“What were you trying to recoup for?” Alvarado asked.

“This rate case covered all our capital investments that the company has made since the 2019 rate case as well as an update on our current level of operating and maintenance costs as well as a current update on the allowed return on the investment of our electric system,” Wells explained.

Is CenterPoint allowed to add additional costs?

“We basically submit the amount we spent for 2023 and use that as the basis for the request moving forward,” Wells added.

Still, Sen. Alvarado didn’t seem pleased with his response and pressed him again to ensure the rate increase would benefit the taxpayers despite having to pay extra on their electric bills.

“I just want to make sure you’re not doing less on proactive maintenance on vegetation,” Alvarado explained. “And waiting till a storm hits because you can recoup the cost once a tree hits the wire on a stem.”

“I can assure you, Senator we took proactive measures well beyond what we can recover in rates because it was the right thing to do given the impact the last several growing seasons have had on the trees in our area,” Wells said. “In the instance of the 35,000 trees we worked – that’s part of the restoration – that’s part of the cost we’d like to recover.”

That’s when the senator asked the question she shared in her video on social media: “Are you planning to go to the PUC on this storm and ask for a rate increase?”

“Yes, we are intending to file for recovery on the cost of this restoration,” Wells replied. “We have the burden of proof to prove those costs are prudent and reasonable but it is a cost – historically has been a cost that has been supported by the PUC.”

Sen. Alvarado, however, felt otherwise suggesting Wells would have to “jump through hoops” with the PUC to try and recoup the loss.

“I hope folks are really going to hone in on this and look carefully at what you’re asking for because there’s a lot of folks that are going to tune in; we’ve got a lot of our constituents [who] don’t want to pay – even if it’s a dollar or two extra a month when a lot of these costs could have been avoided.”

The hearing began at 10 a.m. Monday and the state livestreamed it, which you can find by clicking here.

Wells’ testimony comes just a week after his meeting with the PUC where he apologized to Houstonians.

“Let me begin by being very clear: our response to the impacts of Hurricane Beryl, including our communications, did not meet the high standard we expect of ourselves, let alone what the public expects of us,” Wells said.

‘Talk is cheap’: Outage victims react to CenterPoint’s apologies and promises to do better

As he did last week, Wells also announced initial action plans Monday to increase resiliency. For starters, CenterPoint has assured the public it will be introducing a new and improved online outage tracker by August 1.

“I take accountability for those areas where we fell short of our customer’s expectations, and I want to apologize for the frustration our customers and their families experienced as a result. There are no excuses. We will do better. We will improve. And we will act with a greater sense of urgency,” Wells said. “Hurricane Beryl impacted so many lives, and I want to express my condolences to the families and friends who lost loved ones.”

CenterPoint’s plan of action, which was initially announced during a hearing with the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Thursday, July 25, reflects more than 40 initial actions that the company is taking immediately and over the intermediate- and long-term, including:

• Resiliency Investments: By accelerating the adoption of the latest construction standards, retrofitting existing assets on an accelerated basis, and using predictive modeling, AI and other advanced technologies, CenterPoint will harden its distribution system and speed restoration. The company will also take action to protect its electrical assets by nearly doubling the size of its vegetation management crews and targeting higher-risk vegetation to address the number one cause of damage and outages in Hurricane Beryl.

• Best-in-Class Customer Communications: To ensure customers have the information they need when they need it, CenterPoint will launch a new and more customer-oriented outage tracker by August 1. This online tool will provide better and more complete information during storms and is designed to handle increased demand during such events.

• Strengthened Partnerships: Effective emergency preparedness and response requires close coordination with government officials. CenterPoint will hire a seasoned emergency response leader to help the company rapidly accelerate its planning capabilities and develop close community partnerships to ease the burden of storm events on more vulnerable communities.

Texans don’t shy away from a fight.

The Lone Star State leads the nation in protecting our citizens and assets against malign foreign influence. With today’s digitized economy, one of the most critical layers of protection is for our data and privacy.

Washington has moved too slowly on data and privacy protection. That’s why our state legislators took matters into their own hands by enacting the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, which passed Texas’ House and Senate unanimously and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2023. The TXDPSA is a bipartisan, good-government win.

The TXDPSA went into full effect on July 1, just in time to protect Texans against threats from China’s government. The law ensures that Texans have rights over their own personal data, along with privacy protections against corporations, both foreign and domestic, that do business in the Lone Star State.

As we enter into a new era of cyberwarfare and espionage, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is America’s most comprehensive foreign threat. The party views digital applications as espionage tools to seize as much American data as possible for Beijing’s use. Unbeknownst to many Texans, Temu, the Chinese e-commerce giant that has spent billions of dollars marketing to Americans, is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arsenal of such tools.

While Temu is not explicitly mentioned in China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, as a company based in the People’s Republic of China, Temu and its parent company are subject to the law’s requirement to turn over consumers’ data to the Chinese government, as outlined in a Department of Homeland Security report: “A PRC intelligence agency may request that any PRC firm or entity secretly share access to a U.S. business or individual’s data, or otherwise face penalties.”

Like TikTok, Temu is another Trojan horse for the Chinese.

Temu is part of a long-term, comprehensive strategy that China has been implementing in the United States for the better part of the last decade, using social media, advertising and e-commerce platforms to gain access to our data. The Temu app has infiltrated our homes, schools, military bases and hospitals, and that’s just the beginning.

As of May 2024, Temu had approximately 50 million users in the U.S. — approximately one third of all users across the globe, according to Sensor Tower.

To be blunt: The Chinese won’t stop unless we stop them.

The good news is that Americans are beginning to take notice and take legal action. According to a high-profile class-action lawsuit filed in Illinois, Temu has “wiretapped the electronic communications of its website visitors and failed to alert customers of a data breach.” The lawsuit continues saying that Temu “is purposefully and intentionally loaded with dangerous malware and spyware activities on user devices … all while going to great efforts to intentionally hide the malicious intent and intrusiveness of the software.”

It’s time for Texas to get in the fight.

Gov. Abbott has led the fight against China’s technological influence by enacting a Model Security Plan for Prohibited Technologies, which has become a national blueprint. Abbott banned TikTok and a series of other applications on official state devices and broadband. Abbott should add Temu to this prohibited list. In fact, the app should be banned as broadly as possible in any interaction with Texas’ government, which the security plan allows.

Next, Texas should eliminate its financial exposure to Temu and other adversary companies. For example, Texas’ ERS pension fund holds shares of PDD Holdings, which owns Temu.

Recently, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a Data Privacy and Security Initiative to protect Texans from foreign companies attempting to harvest American data. Paxton should immediately use his authority to launch a consumer protection investigation into Temu and its ties to Beijing. If evidence justifies it, Temu’s activities should be broadly curtailed within the Lone Star State to protect Texas consumers. Giving China’s government access to our cellphone data provides seamless access to our biometrics, home addresses, credit card information and more.

In addition to investigating Temu, Paxton should also lead the charge against China’s infiltration by rallying other states’ attorneys general into taking a stronger stance against Temu. Turning a blind eye to China’s proxies puts all states in danger.

Texas must make it unequivocally clear that if China wants to launch a spy campaign in the Lone Star State, they’ll be met with the full force of our government. Unlike Washington, D.C., here in Texas, we know how to quickly and decisively recognize and eliminate threats. With a crystal-clear Chinese threat in our state, it’s time to act.

Michael Lucci is the Founder and CEO of State Armor, a research nonprofit focusing on state policy solutions to global security threats.

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An illegal migrant from Venezuela who shot and injured a cop in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday was set to be deported after entering the US last year — but an immigration judge gave him a second chance to stay in the country, a Homeland Security source told The Post.

Alleged cop shooter Jorge Chacon-Gutierrez, 25, crossed the southern border in November 2023 with a group of nearly 600 migrants, according to the source.

At the time, border agents were processing him for “expedited removal,” but he argued he had a fear of persecution in Venezuela so he went before an asylum officer, who rejected his claim and continued to process him for removal.

Chacon-Gutierrez, however, asked to make his claim before an immigration judge, who quickly vacated his order of removal and let his case continue.

The case highlights how the US immigration system has “so many loopholes,” the source said.

Chacon-Gutierrez allegedly got into a shootout with police, who were responding to a domestic violence call in the early morning hours, before he died, police said.

The Venezuelan national allegedly fired the first shots, but it’s unclear how he died.

Chacon-Gutierrez’s girlfriend told police he had assaulted her. When cops entered the apartment, they found Chacon-Gutierrez lying in bed with a rifle by his side.

He then allegedly began shooting at the responding officers, who returned fire and exited the apartment.

A female officer was injured after being shot multiple times during the shooting, police said. She was later taken to a hospital and underwent surgery.

“The officer is in good spirits but has a long road to recovery ahead of her,” a spokesperson for the San Antonio police told The Post.

The shooting is just one of several recent prominent violent crimes committed by migrants who were recently vetted and released into the US.

Two migrants from Venezuela are accused of raping and brutally killing 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston last month.

In New York, Venezuelan gang members associated with the violent Tren de Aragua have been committing moped snatch and grab robberies, smuggling guns into city-run migrant shelters and attacking cops.

Police are currently investigating whether the man who shot and killed two people outside a Brooklyn migrant shelter on July 21 had links to the gang.