AUSTIN, Texas – In the wake of Hurricane Beryl, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has announced the creation of a Senate Special Committee on Hurricane and Tropical Storm Preparedness, Recovery, and Electricity.
Patrick said the committee will have Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, serving as Chairman, and Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, will serve as Vice Chair.
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“Texans are rightfully upset with the overwhelming failure of electric utility companies to restore power in a timely fashion following Hurricane Beryl. The electric utility companies’ failure cannot be tolerated, especially when it was so obvious a storm was headed toward Texas. I am appointing this committee to review what happened and establish why certain electric utility companies appear to have been woefully unprepared for Hurricane Beryl. The Texas Senate will work to ensure electric utility companies respond more effectively to future storms.”
Sen. Charles Schwertner also issued a statement upon the creation of the committee:
“As Chairman of the Special Committee, I will focus on why electric utility companies failed to provide timely power restoration to millions of Texans and the decisive actions these companies will take to ensure this type of catastrophic failure never happens again.”
Here are the elected officials who are on the committee:
- Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, Chairman
- Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, Vice Chair
- Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston
- Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston
- Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe
- Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen
- Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston
- Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham
- Sen. Morgan LaMantia, D-Palm Valley
- Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston
- Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston
- Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville
- Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo