The temperature was pleasant in Tokyo, Gov. Greg Abbott’s third and final city on a nine-day run to the Far East, with rain, no wind. Seoul, South Korea, the second city on a junket that began July 5, was about the same but sunny. Taipei, Taiwan, the first city Abbott and his trade delegation visited, was hot — but then, like those other two metropolises, Taipei has air conditioning. Each day, the governor posted X updates about how well his Asian hosts were receiving him and his entourage.

But Gulf Coast Texans were, shall we say, less than pleased that Abbott was 7,000 miles across the Pacific when Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc on our region. At least 13 people have lost their lives in the Houston area, and countless others suffered damage to their homes and businesses as trees and structures toppled across the area. Millions lost electricity.

Still, the governor saw no need to cut his trip short. We don’t begrudge Abbott a planned economic-development junket, particularly if he entices a few foreign companies to invest in Texas. But we do question his judgment. When disaster strikes, we expect a governor to be on the scene. .....

With Abbott AWOL, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (Houston’s own!) happily donned his official disaster shirt and dress-rehearsed his gubernatorial dreams. He did fine, except for the fact that he forgot that it’s up to the governor (in this case, the acting governor) to contact the White House and request an official disaster declaration. That call activates desperately needed federal aid.

Incredibly, President Joe Biden told the Houston Chronicle last Tuesday that he had to personally reach out to Patrick for a formal request a day after the storm hit. “I’ve been trying to track down the governor to see — I don’t have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor,” Biden said in a call. .....

As Chronicle business columnist Chris Tomlinson points out, “CenterPoint is a $19 billion, for-profit corporation granted a monopoly over a hundred years ago to manage and maintain the transmission and distribution of electricity across the Houston region. This regulated utility failed to deliver power to 85% of customers during the height of a mild hurricane.”

Neither Abbott nor Patrick (nor Attorney General Ken Paxton) seem all that interested in finding out why the grid is still broken, even after promises from state officials to fix it in the aftermath of Uri. Neither, it seems, is the PUC, its members appointed by the governor to represent the interests of consumers but apparently more interested in cozying up to the industries they regulate. As Tomlinson points out — and as we have noted frequently — that’s what happens when Texans tolerate one-party rule for nearly three decades.