TEXAS ENERGY: THE LARGEST WILDFIRE

By KENNEDY MAIZE Editor and Publisher, The Quad Report 

ENERGYCENTRAL- Mar 11, 2024 - Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy has acknowledged that its Texas-based subsidiary Southwestern Public Service Co. likely caused the giant Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Texas panhandle. The conflagration erupted late last month, the largest wildfire in Lone Star State history. The fire was largely contained as of yesterday afternoon.

Both the utility holding company and wildfire experts at Texas A&M University identify electric power lines downed in high winds as the source of the fire. The company says it has found no evidence its facilities caused a second fire, the Windy Deuce Fire, although that is disputed by some independent fire experts.

In a statement quoted in the Washington Post, Xcel said its power lines “appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire.”

The Smokehouse Creek Fire so far has devastated over a million acres, or more than 1,560 square miles (1 square mile = 640 acres). At least two people have been killed along with thousands of cattle in a key ranching area. The fire also touched territory in Oklahoma.

Investor-owned Xcel rejected some charges that company was negligent in maintaining and operating its transmission and distribution system. The Wall Street Journal reported, “Xcel, which serves parts of eight Western and Midwestern states, is already dealing with litigation related to its likely role in a 2021 fire in Colorado and its failure to implement a power shut-off as winds picked up.”

Wildfires have become major challenges to utilities that operate in often arid rural areas, the latest major threat to an industry in fundamental transition. The 2018 northern California Camp Fire, caused by downed Pacific Gas & Electric power lines, swept over 240 square miles and killed 82, destroying the town of Paradise. The fire cost an estimated $16.5 billion in damages and pushed PG&E into its second bankruptcy filing in the 21st Century. PG&E ultimately pleaded guilty to 84 charges of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths in Paradise.

In 2021, the Marshall Fire near Boulder, Colo., an exurban fire, covered over nine square miles, killed two, and caused at least $2 billion in damages during high winds. Some analysts have attributed at least a portion of the fire to Xcel’s Public Service of Colorado, which the company has denied.

Last August, a series of fires swept Hawaii’s island of Maui during high winds, causing over 100 deaths, covering 26.5 square miles, with over $5 billion in damages. The most severe of four Maui fires, the Lahaina Fire, was the deadliest in the U.S. since 1918’s Cloquet fire in northern Minnesota, which killed 453 people. The costs may push Hawaiian Electric Industries into bankruptcy protection.

The financial and human impacts of utility-related wildfires have caused legendary U.S. investor Warren Buffett to rethink his investments in electric companies through Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE, neé MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.), long a Buffett favorite.

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