Fresh off of his appearance on 'Houston's Morning News' on 740 KTRH, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick shared some breaking news in Austin for CenterPoint customers here in Houston.
It turns out, Houstonian's were over-charged more than $880 million following hurricane Beryl. But now, that is going to be made right.
"We've been negotiating for a long time" Patrick said, "And I thank CenterPoint today for announcing that the rate payers will be made whole, in fact more than whole. They will return over $900 million dollars to all rate payers."
It was a negotiation that took over year, and hopefully for Houston it will be worth the wait.
"The rate payers under CenterPoint will not be on the hook for the bad business decisions made by CenterPoint" Patrick noted, "Finally, they came to the table and I applaud them for doing the right thing by the rate payers."
CenterPoint confirmed the proposal and said in a statement:
“In Texas, we’re at our best when we’re working together to solve complex challenges. I think everyone can be proud of this proposal that provides a Texas-driven solution to address the state’s power generation shortfall, while also taking steps to reduce the impact on our customers. This plan would not only lower monthly bills immediately, and by as much as $2 by 2027, but it would address the costs paid to date related to large generation units. We look forward to working with elected leaders, regulators and industry partners to move these units to San Antonio and fulfill our commitment to lowering costs for our customers, while helping do our part to improve reliability for our great State of Texas,” said Jason Wells, President and Chief Executive Officer of CenterPoint Energy.
Also during the news conference, Patrick praised the Texas Senate for all of the work they've done and the bills they've passed. And he also said he still has confidence in House Speaker Dustin Burrows, to keep his word and get the job done.