Despite state law, only eight of 160 utility companies in Texas have filed wildfire response plans - AP News

State Rep. Ken King, who pushed House Bill 145 through the legislature, led the House State Affairs Committee hearing where the compliance numbers came out last week. The law requires utility companies to submit wildfire response plans to the Public Utility Commission, spelling out emergency protocols for when fire risk spikes. The gap in filings surfaced after a wildfire season that has stayed active straight through summer, putting pressure on the companies the law was meant to hold accountable.

This matters for anyone living in the stretch of Texas prone to wildfires. A utility without a filed plan hasn't laid out how it handles equipment shutoffs, line inspections, or coordination with fire crews during high-risk stretches, and that leaves regulators and residents guessing about how prepared individual companies actually are, even after the legislature told them to spell it out on paper.

Lawmakers passed HB 145 specifically to close that gap. A compliance rate of five percent suggests it hasn't closed much at all.