May 13, 2024
LUBBOCK — A decayed utility pole that broke, causing power wires to fall on dry grass in the Texas Panhandle, sparked the state’s largest wildfire in history, a Texas House committee confirmed Wednesday. And other poorly maintained power equipment sparked …
April 18, 2024
When the Texas Panhandle went up in flames this winter, the news spread fast on Wall Street. An electric utility by the name of Xcel Energy Inc. was getting blamed for the massive blaze — a lawsuit pointed the finger …
April 4, 2024
AMPA — A company hired to inspect utility poles in the Panhandle declined to testify before Texas lawmakers Wednesday, as part of the state’s inquiry into the Smokehouse Creek fire — the largest wildfire in state history that burned more …
March 14, 2024
LUBBOCK — Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is creating a legislative committee to investigate the Texas Panhandle wildfires to ensure the state is prepared for future disasters. His Tuesday announcement comes more than two weeks after the deadly infernos first …
March 12, 2024
(Xcel Energy Inc. will likely be wrangling for years with the legal fallout from the wildfires burning through the Texas Panhandle. The experience of utility companies in California and Oregon sued over massive blazes sparked by downed power lines shows …
March 8, 2024
Before it burned to a pile of ashes, Melanie McQuiddy’s house on the outskirts of Canadian was her family’s home base. Her daughter and grandchildren flocked there for holidays. At Christmastime, she put a tree in every room and transformed …
March 1, 2024
The worst-ever Texas wildfire sent shares of Xcel Energy Inc. plunging after a law firm said it might be linked to the disaster, the latest sign that potential ties between power companies and blazes are triggering volatility in once-sleepy utility …
November 13, 2018
California utilities are facing the very real possibility that billion-dollar blazes could become an annual occurrence, and they don’t know how to pay for them. Shares of the state’s two largest utilities plummeted Monday after both PG&E Corp. and Edison …
July 26, 2018
California Governor Jerry Brown issued a plan this week to help the state’s embattled utilities facing liabilities from wildfires. For PG&E Corp., it’s not good enough. “It’s insufficient,” PG&E Chief Executive Officer Geisha Williams said on the company’s second-quarter earnings …