{"id":177011,"date":"2026-02-23T21:37:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/177011\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T21:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:37:06","slug":"xcel-will-replace-poles-at-risk-of-wildfire-following-ags-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/177011\/","title":{"rendered":"Xcel will replace poles at risk of wildfire following AG\u2019s lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Texas district court ordered Xcel, an electric utility with more than 200,000 customers in Texas, on Monday to replace poles within wildfire-prone areas it has identified as damaged, following an agreement between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> and the utility.<\/p>\n

In a news release, Paxton called the development a first step<\/a> toward holding Xcel accountable for the 2024 wildfires that scorched through a million acres of the Texas Panhandle<\/a>, killing scores of cattle and at least three people. Shortly after the devastation began, Xcel admitted the pole that sparked the fire was theirs. <\/p>\n

\u201cXcel has made the right decision in working with my office and ultimately agreeing to take these critical first steps,\u201d Paxton said in a statement. \u201c\u2026 I will continue to fight to ensure that justice is served and that wildfires will no longer be sparked by the negligence of a utility provider.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement \u201clargely tracks the pole-replacement procedures Xcel Energy proactively implemented two years ago, after the Smokehouse Creek fire,\u201d said Xcel, in a statement to The Texas Tribune. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue working with the state of Texas as we focus on the wildfire mitigation work to help keep the public safe.\u201d <\/p>\n

Numerous investigations and lawsuits have followed the wildfire. Most recently, Paxton in December sued<\/a> the utility seeking monetary damages.<\/a> Earlier this year, the Texas Tribune reported on the efforts of Panhandle businessman Salem Abraham<\/a> to banish Xcel as the utility provider altogether. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnything Paxton can do to force Xcel to improve is great news,\u201d Abraham said following the news of the injunction.<\/p>\n

The injunction today orders Xcel to replace all poles with severe structural deterioration located in high wildfire risk areas within 14 days. <\/p>\n

The company must then notify the state in writing once replacements are completed. Moving forward, all newly identified high-priority poles must be replaced no later than one day after being reported or discovered.<\/p>\n

The injunction also requires Xcel to conduct large-scale inspections of its infrastructure in high-risk wildfire areas and inspect at least 35,000 poles annually.<\/p>\n

Xcel officials say the company has already taken steps to strengthen<\/a> its infrastructure. <\/p>\n

According to company leaders, Xcel has replaced more than 19,000 poles since 2021 and invested more than $111 million in wooden pole safety and reliability. <\/p>\n

The utility has also implemented a wildfire mitigation plan, installed artificial intelligence cameras that can detect wildfires and alert nearby cities, adopted wildfire-resistant equipment to reduce ignition risk and moved certain electrical distribution systems underground. <\/p>\n

In a statement in January,<\/a> the company said 80 remaining high-priority poles are not located in high wildfire risk areas and are being replaced on an expedited basis. Replacing those can cost more than $15,000, according to the company. Additionally, Xcel said earlier this year it has 1,338 poles that are due for replacement, many of which are low priority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5182,1967,2649,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-177011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-attorney-generals-office","tag-ken-paxton","tag-panhandle","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}