CenterPoint Energy has been in a tree-cutting mood:
When Bill Coats looked out the window of his law office and saw tree-trimming crews for CenterPoint Energy cutting down more than 20 blooming crepe myrtles, he picked up the phone and called the office of Houston Mayor Bill White.
Coats, a self-identified “tree-hugger,” thought there was a moratorium on CenterPoint’s zero-tolerance policy for trees in its high-voltage transmission corridors.
There is now.
“CenterPoint has agreed to stop cutting any more trees right now, because we asked them to,” said Michael Moore, executive assistant to White. “The mayor understands the need for a reliable transmission system. But the city needs more trees, not less trees.”
The 15- to 20-foot-tall crepe myrtles — now poisoned stumps — were located in the 3200 and 3300 blocks of Westpark, near the intersection with Buffalo Speedway. They were directly below CenterPoint’s high-voltage lines in the utility’s Westpark transmission corridor.
Emily Mir-Thompson, a spokeswoman for CenterPoint, said Thursday that the crepe myrtles were cut down because of the company’s new, zero-tolerance policy for any trees taller than 10 feet in its transmission corridors.
A zero-tolerance policy for trees? For 15- to 20-foot trees?
Thank goodness Mayor White has convinced CenterPoint to stop cutting down trees:
“But in the meantime, we are going on with business-as-usual and making sure that our rights of way are clear,” she said.
Mir-Thompson said she knew nothing of a new moratorium on tree cutting.
Oh. Maybe another phone call is in order.
