TEXAS — After the destruction from Hurricane Beryl this summer and deadly wildfires in the Texas Panhandle earlier this year, extreme weather is expected to drive policy during the 2025 legislative session. Major initiatives from recent sessions were in response to extreme weather events, but looking further into the future may benefit the state more.
Panhandle area Rep. Ken King is no stranger to wildfires.
“It’s horrible because I know it’s preventable,” said King. “It’s been a way of life up there since about 2006.”
The 2024 Texas Panhandle wildfires caused $123 million in agricultural losses, making it the costliest wildfire in state history. King chaired the investigative committee on the Panhandle wildfires, which reported multiple recommendations to decrease the chance of wildfires happening and prevent them from spreading out of control. One suggestion is a state-owned firefighting air force.
“We’re reliant on somebody in another state to decide what kind of aircraft we need and how many airplanes it might take to put out a wildfire. I think Texas should manage its own contracts,” said King.
A new contract would require legislative approval, and after the havoc from Hurricane Beryl, which cost Texas 4.6 billion-dollar in economic loss, and hailstorms across North Texas, some policy experts expect extreme weather events to drive legislative decisions during the 2025 legislative session.
“The Legislature is slowly moving away from this phase where they’ve been reactive to extreme weather events towards thinking about policies that we need to make sure that the state is more resilient,” said Jeremy Mazur, director of natural resources and infrastructure policy for Texas 2036.
Environmental experts say Texas is seeing more intense rainfall and longer periods of drought, which will be exacerbated by rising global temperatures.
“That’s obviously going to pose a big problem for managing the state’s water resources,” said Avantika Gori, assistant professor of environmental engineering at Rice University.
Improving infrastructures, like storm drains or power lines, is a preventative investment experts suggest will protect people from the impact of weather events, but other experts say reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to stabilize the climate will prepare the state to address future extreme weather events.
“You can build a seawall that’s good to a certain level of sea level rise, but as the sea keeps getting higher, you know, at some point, you’re no longer gonna be adaptive,” said Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University.
Texas climatologist John Neilson-Gammon explains that the challenge for lawmakers is to think long term.
“Look at the risk from a broader perspective and be able to prepare for the things that haven’t happened yet in addition to the things that already have happened,” said Neilson-Gammon.
King doesn’t expect the solution for wildfires to come during the next 140-day session, but in the wake of the disaster he noted that Texans were the first to help their neighbors.
“If there was a bright spot in the whole thing, that was it,” he said.
The findings from the Investigative Commission on the Panhandle Wildfires are published online.