When 11 cities in the Texas Panhandle simultaneously decide they’ve had enough, it’s worth paying attention. On Wednesday, communities across the region announced the creation of the “Lonestar Eleven” — a coalition formed, as organizers put it, in response to “years of negligent operations by Minnesota-based Xcel Energy, and the growing threat of preventable utility-caused wildfires in one of the most fire-prone regions of the country.”
The coalition includes Borger, Canadian, Fritch, Higgins, Miami, McLean, Pampa, Perryton, Skellytown, Stinnett and Wheeler. Each voted in recent months to join forces “to seek safety for their residents amid continued negligence in utility maintenance by Xcel.”
Their frustration has been building for years, but the tipping point was the February 2024 Smokehouse Creek Fire — now regarded as the largest wildfire in Texas history. Fueled by severe winds and drought-dry vegetation, the fire and several others burned more than a million acres, killed at least three people and thousands of cattle, and left lasting scars on rural communities.
It was also preventable.
A Pattern of Wildfire Sparks — and a Painful Sense of Déjà Vu
Investigators found that Smokehouse Creek ignited when a power line owned by Xcel Energy, Southwestern Public Service Company and Osmose Utilities Services snapped in high winds. The fact that the pole had been inspected and marked for replacement earlier in 2024 added insult to injury — the work simply hadn’t happened yet.
And it wasn’t an isolated incident. In 2024 alone, at least four major Texas Panhandle fires started from power lines — two linked to Xcel and two to oil and gas operators. The region is no stranger to wildfire ignitions from a variety of human causes — everything from arson to dragging chains to tossed cigarette butts — but electrical infrastructure failures stand out because they are so easily preventable with proper maintenance.
Panhandle residents have long complained that their power system is aging, overstressed and inconsistently regulated. The Lonestar Eleven argues that despite Xcel Energy’s promises of accelerated maintenance after the Smokehouse Creek disaster, “local officials say aging and unsafe poles remain in service today, leaving communities vulnerable.”
The Regulatory “No Man’s Land” Complicating Accountability
One of the biggest challenges is regulatory ambiguity — especially in rural areas where power infrastructure overlaps with privately owned oil and gas equipment.
Many pumpjacks, for example, rely on electrical lines that extend deep into private land. Those lines are often decades old, poorly mapped and, crucially, not clearly governed by any single regulatory body. The Texas Railroad Commission points to the Public Utility Commission. The PUC often points back.
The result, as previous reporting has shown, is a kind of bureaucratic stalemate.
This gap has left individuals like landowner Craig Cowden informally patrolling the countryside, identifying decaying electrical poles and reporting them on his own time — a nearly impossible job given the thousands of lines tied to abandoned or aging oilfield equipment.
State committees and local leaders have recommended tightening these rules for years, but meaningful legislative change has been slow to materialize. In the meantime, lawsuits and settlement negotiations have become the primary tools for wildfire victims seeking compensation.
Attorney General Ken Paxton Steps In
On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton escalated matters by filing a lawsuit against Xcel Energy for what his office described as negligence related to the Smokehouse Creek Fire. The suit seeks economic damages for the State of Texas and requests that Xcel be ordered to make corrective changes to prevent future disasters.
The Lonestar Eleven quickly signaled support. In the coalition’s announcement, Canadian resident and advisor Salem Abraham said:
“Our communities applaud Attorney General Ken Paxton for taking action to hold Xcel accountable for its failures to keep Panhandle communities safe. Like the Panhandle ranchers and families that witnessed their lives and livelihoods destroyed before their eyes, Attorney General Paxton recognizes that we simply cannot afford any more broken poles and broken promises.”
Abraham added:
“Attorney General Paxton’s lawsuit echoes our belief that Xcel has violated not only the trust of its customers, but also the law. By representing the State, including the Public Utility Commission of Texas, Attorney General Paxton understands that ratepayers shouldn’t have to cover all of those costs.”
For Abraham, the issue goes beyond one bad fire season. He has previously criticized state leaders for dismissing calls to strengthen oversight. At a wildfire preparation conference earlier this year, he recalled that during a visit to Austin to push for tougher utility regulation, people in the governor’s office “did everything but laugh at us.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, he reiterated the coalition’s goals:
“They’ve come together to work with the Attorney General and Xcel to find a solution that ensures public safety, increases reliability, and provides appropriate oversite to help put an end to utility-caused wildfires while protecting rate payers… We must make sure public and private utilities live up to their commitments to keep our communities safe, including repairing aging, decrepit infrastructure to ensure we never see a disaster like the Smokehouse Creek Fire again.”
The coalition has urged state leaders, landowners, businesses and “all Xcel customers in the region” to support reforms.
Xcel Energy Responds
Xcel, for its part, pushed back on the coalition’s assertions. In a lengthy statement, the company emphasized its century-long presence in the region and its post-fire efforts:
“For over 100 years, we have worked with our communities to keep the lights on in the Panhandle. Immediately following the Smokehouse Creek fire, Xcel Energy set up an expedited claims process to facilitate fast payments to neighbors who suffered losses in those fires… To date, we have agreements for settlements totaling $361 million for 212 of 254 total claims made against the company.”
The company also highlighted its infrastructure upgrades, including wildfire-detection AI cameras, and pointed to its Texas System Resiliency Plan — a major grid investment proposal it says was developed with input from many of the same cities now joining the Lonestar Eleven.
Xcel closed by saying:
“Xcel Energy has always welcomed the opportunity to have productive, informed discussions about the work we have done in the communities where we have lived and served for more than a century. We will continue to directly interact with the cities.”
A Region Caught Between Fire Risk and Aging Infrastructure
The Texas Panhandle is one of the most wildfire-prone places in the United States. High winds, dry grasses and vast open landscapes mean that even a small spark can escalate rapidly. In such an environment, utility infrastructure must be maintained with aggressive rigor — not simply because it’s good practice, but because lives, livelihoods and ecosystems depend on it.
The Lonestar Eleven reflects a growing sentiment across rural America: communities are tired of bearing the costs of infrastructure failures they cannot control, and of fighting for reforms that should have been implemented long ago.
Their message is simple: prevention is cheaper than catastrophe, and accountability is long overdue.
Whether the coalition’s formation — alongside the state’s lawsuit — finally pushes Texas policymakers and utilities to address the root causes of power-line-related wildfires remains to be seen. But one thing is clear:
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