Gulf States Utilities

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Gulf States Utilities (GSU) was an electric power generation and distribution company headquartered in Beaumont, Texas. The company was founded in 1911 as Eastern Texas Electric, a holding company for Stone & Webster. On August 25, 1925, Gulf States Utilities Company was incorporated in the state of Texas.

The company grew, and in 1979 moved its headquarters into the Edison Plaza office tower, which is still the tallest building in Beaumont (as of 2008). Its older headquarters, the Liberty Pearl building, which still houses a lot of its telecommunications equipment including the microwave radio systems, is still the second tallest. Also in the late 1970s, construction began on the River Bend Station nuclear power plant. Cost overruns on the nuclear plant and a downturn in the regional economy in the mid 1980s nearly drove GSU into bankruptcy. Former chief financial officer, Joseph L. Donnelly, has been credited with preventing the company from filing and ultimately was named its CEO.

GSU was absorbed by Entergy Corporation in 1993. At the time, GSU had 578,000 customers across southern Louisiana and East Texas. Edison Plaza is used by Entergy as a regional headquarters. Joe Domino, a well respected long time employee who started as an engineer and later served as Sabine Station plant (near Bridge City) manager, is currently Entergy, Texas president. The River Bend Station continued to be a thorn in the side of its new owners due to lawsuits by the project's investors and fines levied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over safety problems at the plant.