There have been considerable questions about the reliability of electrical power in Harris County over the past few years and more answers are needed, sooner rather than later, or residents could start deciding to move elsewhere.
That's one of the takeaways from last week's University of Houston poll, which revealed that recurring power outages were the top issue among those asked, even more so than inflation or other pocketbook issues.
Rice University political scientist and University of Houston Hobby School fellow Mark Jones told Newsradio 740 KTRH that Southeast Texans have been through a lot the last few years: Devastating winter blackouts in February 2021 and then came this year's "Derecho" tornadoes and then Hurricane Beryl.
"When these factors occur, they identify weaknesses in our electrical grid or in our broader power matrix that voters expect that their elected officials will take care of."
It becomes something like the "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice..." scenario when Houston-area residents have to endure blackout after blackout this year; people wonder if things being done to cope with the emergency weather situations are doing much good.
But CenterPoint says it's doing all it can, even coming up with new programs that attempt to head off similar problems in the future; and CenterPoint was indeed able to bring millions of its customers online within days of the destructive Hurricane Beryl.
Still, Jones says, "it needs to resolve these electrical and other utility-related issues, otherwise it may find itself losing population to other cities in Texas with fewer problems or cities and counties outside of the state."