Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said he would like to see the state get involved.
DALLAS — It’s been nearly two weeks since Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas. The Houston area was hardest hit by Beryl. It is the second tropical storm to strike the Houston area in the past two months. Alberto made landfall in the region in June 2024.
Houston was the hardest hit, but the last to receive help. Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis believes he is witnessing a series of man-made disasters that have hit Houston. Beryl was the fastest storm on record to become a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, and Harris County was unprepared.
“Beryl’s projected path in the Gulf of Mexico has changed significantly from initially being predicted to make landfall in northeastern Mexico. My point is that it wasn’t all that predictable to come so soon after Alberto and we weren’t prepared for it,” the commissioner said.
Ellis said his assessment is that the state’s response to Hurricane Beryl was inadequate.
“The state’s response in this case was clearly inadequate, which is that they should have followed the normal process, knowing something might happen, they should have signed the paperwork, submitted it to the White House and then amended it later just to be safe,” Ellis said.
Ellis said the Public Utilities Commission is not doing its job and believes the industry needs change.
“The Texas system has been a regulated monopoly for decades, probably almost a century, and there should have been more constraints. Not just CenterPoint, but Oncor. … So it’s a regulated industry, but a regulated monopoly. So maybe we need to look at what we can do — put more layers into the process, figure out what we can do to make the companies feel the pain, not just pass the burden on to ratepayers,” Ellis told Inside Texas Politics.
Ellis is concerned that the damage caused by two recent storms, which have been reported across the nation, could impact economic development, and he thinks companies and businesses should reconsider investing in Houston.
“It’s going to impact the economic development of this state. This state is the engine and driver of economic development in America. It’s certainly going to impact it, and that’s why state leaders are going to want to make some investments on their side,” Ellis said.
He said the pressure will be on the states because they control the Public Utilities Commission.
