This week, I was in Austin to attend hearings on school vouchers and the House State Affairs Committee meeting, which was chaired by Ken King. During the meeting, King introduced his package of bills focused on Wildfire Prevention and Management.
King emphasized, “These bills are about preventing fire, number one, and it would be great if we just didn’t start fires.” He presented HB 13, HB 143, HB 144, and HB 145, which address various issues identified by the general investigating committee after last year's wildfires. These bills tackle problems such as the failure of operators to maintain electrical power lines—responsible for the Windy Deuce Fire—the management and inspection of poles related to the Smokehouse Creek Fire, and increasing liability for companies that fail to implement wildfire risk mitigation plans.
HB 13 specifically aims to create an interoperability communications network and grant program to ensure that local first responders have the necessary equipment and systems, requesting $500 million to fund it.
Panhandle ranchers Joe Leathers (666 Ranch), Jason Abraham, James Henderson, and Craig Cowden collaborated with King to draft these bills and traveled to Austin to testify in support of them. In the hearing, King remarked, “The Panhandle doesn’t have a new wind problem; we have an 80-year-old infrastructure problem.”
Both Xcel Energy and Osmos, the company that inspects the poles for Xcel in our region, testified in favor of King’s bills. Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) Chief Nim Kidd described the communications bill as the “boldest bill” he’s seen to address communications issues.
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