Two years after the Smokehouse Creek Fire turned a million acres into a charcoal briquette, our local “workhorse” politicians gathered in Plainview to take a victory lap for finally doing the bare minimum. State Rep. Ken King and the West Texas delegation are bragging about a “strongest-ever” slate of legislation, which is a nice way of saying they finally noticed the state’s 14 major wildfires since 2006 were almost all caused by the same thing: electrical companies being cheap.
The “groundbreaking” revelation from the investigative committee was that Xcel Energy knew a pole was unsafe in January 2024, did nothing, and watched it blow over and spark a disaster in February. It turns out utility companies have spent 30 years treating their “maintenance funds” like a personal piggy bank for higher ROI projects while leaving us with poles so old they probably belong in a museum. Now, lawmakers have graciously mandated that utilities actually inspect their equipment and—wait for it—report those results to the public so you can see exactly how old the ticking time bomb on your property is.
The state also “discovered” that our volunteer firefighters—the people actually standing between us and a fiery doom—were being funded by “filling the boot” and a measly grant that had a $200 million backlog. Some departments were so broke their gas cards were getting declined at the pump while they were trying to save the town. To solve this, the state threw some cash at the backlog and is looking into buying a tanker plane because, apparently, being “second in line” behind California for aerial support isn’t the Texas way.
Despite all the self-congratulation, they still haven’t figured out “interoperability”—the fancy word for first responders actually being able to talk to each other on the radio. Currently, it takes about 36 hours for the state “cavalry” to successfully communicate with local crews. But don’t worry, they promise to make that a “priority” next session, which in politician-speak means “see you in another two years”.
It only took a million-acre fire and 15,000 dead cattle for our leaders to realize that “deferred maintenance” is just a fancy term for “waiting for the sparks to fly.” Who knew?
https://www.kcbd.com/2026/02/24/west-texas-lawmakers-tout-wildfire-response-reform/