{"id":22244,"date":"2024-08-01T16:32:11","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T16:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=786665"},"modified":"2024-08-01T16:32:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T16:32:11","slug":"oil-and-gas-power-lines-suspected-of-causing-texas-panhandle-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2024\/08\/01\/oil-and-gas-power-lines-suspected-of-causing-texas-panhandle-wildfires\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil and Gas Power Lines Suspected of Causing Texas Panhandle Wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-wildfire-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2024\/08\/01\/786665.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2024\/08\/01\/786665.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>When a spate of wildfires tore across the Texas Panhandle in February and scorched 20,000 acres of Craig Cowden\u2019s ranch near Skellytown, he decided he had had enough. Cowden took on a second unofficial job: looking for possible fire hazards on his family land, including checking on the electric lines that power oil and gas equipment.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the utility companies that run power lines across a region under state oversight, oil and gas companies typically string their own power lines from utility poles to their work sites.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-topics=\"catastrophe,energy,natural-disasters,oil-gas,wildfire\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>Texas relies on the operators to maintain those lines. Not all of them do. And the state agencies that regulate the energy industry and the power industry said they\u2019re powerless to regulate power lines in the oil patch.<\/p>\n<p>Cowden, 38, spots problems such as a pump jack with faulty wiring or a power line lying on dead grass. He\u2019s filed complaints with the Railroad Commission of Texas, which oversees oil and gas operations. The agency inspected some of the issues he reported, Cowden said. That made him lucky \u2014 a lawyer said others have had to file lawsuits against oil lease owners to get dangerous electric equipment fixed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have enough to do on my plate,\u201d Cowden said. \u201cI don\u2019t need to do their job too, but that\u2019s basically what I\u2019m having to do in order to get change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The series of devastating February fires burned more than 1.2 million acres. Electric lines for oilfield equipment were blamed for at least two of them, state records show. The disaster revealed the danger of what are effectively unregulated power lines built by oil and gas operators \u2014 a problem Texas lawmakers tried and failed to fix 15 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>State Rep. Ken King, a Republican from the Panhandle who led the investigation into the recent fires, said he would prefer not to push a new law next year to address that regulatory gap. Instead, he wants the Railroad Commission to write a rule defining its role in investigating energy operators for electrical problems and notifying the state Public Utility Commission if the electricity needs to be turned off.<\/p>\n<p>But in a statement to The Texas Tribune, the Railroad Commission said it doesn\u2019t have any formal role in regulating power lines. And the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees electricity in the state, told the Tribune it lacked legal authority to inspect oilfield power lines too.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-topics=\"catastrophe,energy,natural-disasters,oil-gas,wildfire\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>King and other legislators said the result is \u201ca regulatory \u2018no man\u2019s land&#8217;\u201d that leaves the Panhandle residents vulnerable to more wildfires \u2014 as they have been for years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would never do anything to damage the oil and gas industry in our state; it\u2019s too important,\u201d King said. \u201cBut that being said, one tiny part of the industry does not have the right to burn millions of acres and destroy all these other industries every couple years because they won\u2019t clean up their own mess.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2006, eight fires merged to become the East Amarillo Complex Fire and blazed for nine days, setting a record for the biggest fire in the state\u2019s history that stood until this year\u2019s fires. Attorney Joe Lovell said improperly constructed power lines owned by an oil and gas operator caused the North Fire, which became part of that 2006 complex that burned part of Cowden\u2019s property. Lovell sued the operator on behalf of landowners and families of two people who died.<\/p>\n<p>Three years later, Texas legislators passed a law that required oilfield operators to build and maintain their power lines according to the National Electrical Code. But the law did not specify a penalty or an agency to enforce it, so there were no consequences for violating it.<\/p>\n<p>Power lines have caused 14,236 fires that burned roughly 2.7 million acres since 2005, said Jake Donellan, the Texas A&amp;M Forest Service\u2019s field operations department head. The agency historically did not track how many of those were caused by oilfield electric lines in particular. It\u2019s now working on adding a subcategory to record that information.<\/p>\n<p>Oil operators are responsible for their own lines<\/p>\n<p>In the Texas Panhandle, where oilfields are spread across private ranches, oilfield operators often rely on a single power utility that serves the region. Each operator that needs electricity at a worksite is responsible for tying into the nearest power pole.<\/p>\n<p>The process of requesting a connection and hiring electricians to do the work can take six to nine months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Jason Herrick, president of Pantera Energy Company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is up to the operator to get it to the location,\u201d Herrick said.<\/p>\n<p>Pantera owns 1,800 wells in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and southwest Kansas. The company checks the condition of its electric lines and poles twice a year, including inspecting the Johnny Balls that weigh the lines down and prevents them from clashing together and sparking, Herrick said. The operator also inspects its oilfield equipment daily.<\/p>\n<p>Not all oil and gas operators take care of their wires, said King, who chaired the investigative committee created to investigate the February fires. Some wells produce small amounts of oil and operators watching costs might not spend money to maintain them, he said.<\/p>\n<p>King\u2019s committee, which includes two other House members and two members of the public, found the regulatory oversight of oil and gas operators \u201cgrossly deficient\u201d especially for companies overseeing those low-producing or non-producing wells.<\/p>\n<p>In February, lawyers say a rotten utility pole owned by the utility Xcel Energy, which serves more than 3.7 million customers in Texas and seven other states, snapped and crashed onto dry grass. That ignited the fast-spreading Smokehouse Creek Fire that burned for nearly three weeks, killed thousands of head of cattle and set a new record for the largest wildfire in Texas after torching more than 1 million acres. Xcel Energy acknowledged its equipment was involved in starting the blaze.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, evidence showed that private power line equipment on oilfields started at least one of the other fires at that time and is suspected of causing another, according to Texas A&amp;M Forest Service investigator reports.<\/p>\n<p>An investigator at the Grape Vine Creek Fire found that a metal conduit wasn\u2019t attached with brackets to the electrical pole, so it blew around in the wind, causing sparks. Two sources told the investigator that an oil and gas operator owned the pole but the investigator could not determine who owned the pole or the electrical equipment, according to the investigators\u2019 report.<\/p>\n<p>At the spot where the Windy Deuce Fire started, three power lines around a pump jack were strung through the branches of a small tree, the state investigator found. The fire went on to burn more than 140,000 acres, incinerating homes around the city of Fritch and putting residents on edge in the city of Borger \u2014 where a prescribed burn months earlier created a firebreak that saved countless homes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWindy Deuce is the classic example of what happens when nobody enforces the law,\u201d said John Lovell, an Amarillo attorney.<\/p>\n<p>Lovell is representing a rancher who filed a claim to get money from the oilfield company that they believe owned the power lines, Polaris Operating. He said the power lines got close enough to each other for electricity to jump between them, melting aluminum in the wire and causing the fire.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys for Polaris, which was in bankruptcy proceedings when the fire happened, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Residents have nowhere to turn for help<\/p>\n<p>At Breezy Point Ranch, Cowden\u2019s cows graze around the dozens of pump jacks. Old leases from the 1920s were passed down from one oilfield operator to the next \u2014 leaving Cowden\u2019s hands tied. While the land on his ranch is his, the minerals underneath it are not.<\/p>\n<p>So, he has to deal with the equipment. He\u2019s lost at least one cow to electrocution from an electrical line that shorted out. One operator for many of the wells told Cowden to sue the company if he didn\u2019t like how the equipment was managed, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Others have filed lawsuits to get fixes. In Archer County, a family sued the oil and gas lease owner on their property in 2017 to get electrical equipment fixed. The operator fixed the equipment two weeks before the case went to trial, said John Lovell, the attorney also involved in the Windy Deuce case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had to spend I don\u2019t know how many tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars to get them to comply with the law,\u201d Lovell said.<\/p>\n<p>Cowden said that operator for many of the oil sites on his ranch has not been easy to work with, and it\u2019s gotten worse since he presented photos of the conditions to lawmakers at the hearings that followed the February fires.<\/p>\n<p>The company was supplying electricity to one of Cowden\u2019s water wells but Cowden said they cut it because they said it needed to be inspected. He said he\u2019s not against the oil and gas industry, but wants there to be accountability and prudent operations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEliminating the ignition is a problem we should take on,\u201d Cowden said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s been an adequate response to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2024\/08\/01\/texas-oil-electricity-power-lines-fires-panhandle\/.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/catastrophe\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Catastrophe<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/natural-disasters\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Natural Disasters<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/texas\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Texas<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/wildfire\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Wildfire<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/energy\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Energy<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/oil-gas\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Oil Gas<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"786665\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! 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Cowden took on&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1,983,77,984,985],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/oil-and-gas-power-lines-suspected-of-causing-texas-panhandle-wildfires.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22244"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}