Biden admin denied a Houston grid upgrade request. Then Hurricane Beryl knocked out power for millions

The Biden administration turned down a Houston utility’s request for funding to upgrade grid infrastructure before Hurricane Beryl knocked out power in the city this week, according to E&E News.

CenterPoint Energy — the Houston-based utility — applied for about $100 million from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) $10.5 billion Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program, but its application was denied by the agency in 2023, according to E&E News. GRIP funding is specifically meant to “improve the resilience of the power system against growing threats of extreme weather” across the U.S., and Hurricane Beryl ultimately knocked out power for millions of people this week in the largest power outage in CenterPoint’s history, according to local outlet ABC13.

Specifically, CenterPoint requested the assistance “to fund high wind and flood mitigation projects,” and it was flooding and high winds from the storm that teamed up to knock out power in Houston, according to E&E News. The utility wanted to upgrade the power lines and poles that were damaged by Hurricane Beryl, though it is not clear that the upgrades would have been completed before the storm hit Houston.

It is also unclear why DOE denied CenterPoint’s request and what role municipal and state government entities may or may not have played in setting the stage for weather-related outages.

CenterPoint is the electricity provider for about 2.8 million businesses and homes in the Houston area, and it covers major ports, oil refineries and massive petrochemical facilities, according to E&E News. However, it was not among the 58 selectees receiving $3.5 billion in total from GRIP that DOE announced in October 2023.

“These are highly competitive processes with applicants from around the country,” CenterPoint told E&E News. The firm added that it “incorporated the feedback from DOE” in a subsequent application for GRIP funding filed in April, but selectees for that round of funding will not be announced until later in 2024.

CenterPoint declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Caller News Foundation, stating that the company is focused on recovery efforts and restoring power.

Houston is located on the Gulf Coast, an area of the country that is particularly susceptible to hurricanes, and it is also home to crucial oil, gas, petrochemical and commercial infrastructure. Moreover, Houston and surrounding areas are under an official heat advisory, and hundreds of thousands of CenterPoint customers will be without power until next week, according to The Associated Press.

“I don’t understand how the grant application could be rejected,” Ed Hirs, an energy economist at the University of Houston, told E&E News. “This is the home of the petrochemical part of America. I mean, for God’s sakes, what’s DOE thinking?”

“CenterPoint is clearly a matter of national security,” Hirs told the outlet. “This is the communications hub for the oil patch and petrochemicals and refiners.”

The DOE did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

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