00:00We might have to accept, essentially at gunpoint, a power line that then our kids have to deal with.
00:06Tim Ingalls wants to restore the 40,000-acre frying pan ranch outside of Amarillo, Texas,
00:12that's been in his family since 1881.
00:15But the mission he shares with his partners at the company Ranchlands
00:19is complicated by something we all tend to take for granted, the power grid.
00:30I'm a land and livestock kind of guy. I love cattle and I love taking care of land.
00:36We graze one tiny area really hard. They smash that grass and then you move them off of that.
00:42And then you give that little area a ton of time to recover.
00:46So give it like a year of recovery and then rain and time and it'll come back even stronger than
00:52what it was before.
00:53So we use the electric fence as a tool to force the cattle into those areas that they might not
00:59want to be in.
01:00There's already one electric transmission line running through the land,
01:04which the ranchers say interferes with their electric fence.
01:07And utility company Xcel Energy plans to build three more.
01:11They want to construct around seven miles of right of way, which is 450 foot wide.
01:19The overall goal is to create a 765 kilovolt power line from eastern New Mexico up to the Potter substation
01:30in Amarillo.
01:32But for the last 30 miles, once it gets near Amarillo, they claim that they cannot build a bigger substation
01:40to take just the single 765 line.
01:43So they have to downgrade it and widen the footprint and have three of these things rather than just one.
01:49Transmission lines are the highways for the grid that bring electricity from where it's generated to where it's consumed.
01:55How much electricity transmission lines can handle at once is measured in kilovolts.
02:00Texas is planning to build a network of 765 kilovolt lines across the state.
02:06That would be like adding 12-lane superhighways to the map.
02:10Those plans place ranchers and private landowners at odds with the oil and gas industry.
02:16The industry wants greater access to electricity in the production hub of the Permian Basin in West Texas and New
02:24Mexico.
02:24When the ranchers set up beneath the transmission line, they've encountered problems.
02:30The power lines, they definitely dictate the routes that we can take with our tent fence, our electric tent fence
02:38that we use to separate the pastures up.
02:41If you cross directly underneath the power lines, it'll short your electric line out.
02:46And then it'll actually like turn it like it'll have frequency when the line is turned off.
02:52So you end up with, yeah, just a line that you can't use one way or the other.
02:58In a statement, Xcel Energy tells Straight Arrow,
03:01Electric fencing is commonly used near transmission infrastructure.
03:06When properly installed and grounded, electric fencing can safely coexist with transmission facilities.
03:13Grounding connects a circuit to the earth, giving excess electricity somewhere to go.
03:17It's a safety mechanism that avoids a buildup of voltage that could create a dangerous shock.
03:23We have grounding rods that will pound into the ground as far as we can go.
03:27There's different things you can do to make the grounding more effective.
03:31You can pour buckets of water on that area. Grounding rods are always most effective after a rain.
03:37But even with grounding rods, the frying pan team finds the fence does not function properly.
03:43I imagine that it would only increase it, that it would affect it more the more power lines there are.
03:49The ranchers worry that Xcel Energy's plans could limit the progress they've seen after several years of their grazing technique.
03:56A lot of the areas that have kind of deeper cattle trails or arroyos are starting to heal up.
04:03We've had, you know, larger wildlife herds than I've really seen growing up here.
04:10I mean, just last year I think we had a pronghorn herd of like 35 animals on our ranch, which
04:14I hadn't really seen before in my life.
04:16There's a lot of benefits that we're seeing and I think there's still a lot more work that we can
04:20do to figure out how to take it to the next level.
04:23This is hardly the first transmission line route to ruffle feathers.
04:27Julie Cohn, a historian who has written a book on the development of the power grid, explains why.
04:33Different stakeholders have different perspectives on what a transmission line is doing and for whom and how they are either
04:40going to be harmed or going to benefit.
04:43That conflict is playing out across the country.
04:46A transmission line planned for Missouri and other Midwest states was canceled in 2025.
04:51An eminent domain fight in Georgia has gained national attention.
04:55Historically, landowners have gone to extreme lengths to prevent projects, like farmers in 1970s Minnesota.
05:02They'd head out at night with a picnic in their trucks and they'd actually pull the tower down and have
05:10a little celebration.
05:11In modern day Texas, a 2023 law called for three east-west transmission lines within the state's isolated power grid
05:20run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, also known as ERCOT.
05:25Todd Staples is the president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association.
05:30In a statement shared with Straight Arrow, he explains his support for new transmission lines.
05:35Strategic modernization of our transmission infrastructure is essential to support demand from growing sectors like AI and, critically, the oil
05:45and natural gas production and transportation that propel growth in all sectors of the Texas economy.
05:51The result? Landowners suddenly start receiving notices from power companies.
05:57The load itself is controversial to some people.
06:01This is going to be a really difficult challenge for the Public Utility Commission to take into account these opinions
06:09and determine what is going to be the best way to accomplish the goals of the legislation.
06:14The Excel power line falls outside of the main Texas grid and is part of the Southwest Power Pool.
06:21It will run from a substation west of Amarillo for 180 miles to a substation southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico.
06:29There's still a long way to go before Excel has permits in hand.
06:33First, the company needs approval from regulators, including the Public Utilities Commission of Texas.
06:39Once approved, Excel can use eminent domain to take the land.
06:44Having been through this before, Ingalls thinks his only option is to negotiate for the best possible financial compensation.
06:52But that doesn't mean he agrees with the process.
06:55The whole process is pretty invasive.
06:58You know, basically they have these different routes that they select and then they kind of pit different landowners somewhat
07:03against each other saying,
07:04well, I want it to go this way, I want it to go that way.
07:06I think this country was basically founded on the right to have your own property rights without the state taking
07:13them or a king taking them.
07:14He's not alone.
07:16In the Texas Hill Country, Utility Company Encore and the Lower Colorado River Authority are partnering to build another 765
07:24kilovolt line.
07:25It's among the first 765 kilovolt lines proposed in Texas, and they could make the grid more efficient.
07:33Jennifer Schmidt is the head of operations at Rhythm Energy, a retail electric company that sells power to consumers.
07:40When you get over 300 miles, give or take, 765 kV is more effective.
07:47You have fewer line losses.
07:49You have a lower cost going into getting the power to the places where people are using it.
07:56The Texas Oil and Gas Association says upgrading the grid benefits all of society.
08:01In his statement to Straight Arrow, the association's president Todd Staples said,
08:06Texas's security depends on robust critical infrastructure, including oil and natural gas production and data centers,
08:14both of which strengthen our economy and meet our nation's needs on our soil, not in foreign countries that may
08:20not share our best interests.
08:22But the Encore and LCRA line has drawn hundreds of challenges.
08:27Dave Clark is a retired accountant who owns property near the proposed route.
08:32He says the transmission line lit a spark in his community.
08:36This process has just been horrible for landowners.
08:39In the summer of 2025, landowners received notice from Encore and LCRA.
08:44The companies hosted three public meetings, but Smith said they did not provide much information.
08:50In March, the companies mailed out 90-page packets informing landowners of final route options.
08:56All of a sudden, landowners who hadn't had any involvement in this in nine months are learning for the first
09:02time that they're impacted.
09:04Clark works alongside the nonprofit Friends of the San Saba River to help neighbors with the legal process.
09:11After the final routes were announced, landowners had about 30 days to decide if they would intervene in the case
09:17at the Texas PUC.
09:19That involves hiring a lawyer and filing dozens of pages of testimony on why the route should go around their
09:25land.
09:26An administrative judge reviews all of the company's proposed route options and landowner testimony and recommends a route to the
09:33commission.
09:34At this point, the fight is over whose land the line will cross, not whether to build it at all.
09:41It's a challenge. And quite frankly, landowners, they're the only people that have anything to lose in all of this.
09:51While landowners face a confusing legal process, all electricity users within the state's ERCOT grid pay a portion of the
09:58construction.
09:59We have found in the data that there is a higher percentage of transmission costs being allocated to residential and
10:07small commercial customer classes.
10:09Those transmission costs are based on four summer days with the highest electricity demand each year.
10:16Schmidt points out that residents usually run their air conditioning.
10:20But large commercial and industrial facilities are more likely to ramp down their power use.
10:27That creates the disproportionate cost share on monthly bills, which she says can get worse.
10:33If you ingest a ton of large commercial and industrial, a ton of data centers, you start to have that
10:40subsidy really lean towards residential and small commercial picking up the bill.
10:44Schmidt says she favors reforming how transmission costs are allocated.
10:49Back at the frying pan ranch, Ingalls wants to change how landowners are compensated for giving up control of their
10:56property.
10:57We should be talking about royalty payments for as long as these power lines are out there to increase with
11:03inflation rather than a one time payment that they can then, you know, just forget after 20 years that we
11:10have to deal with for the rest of our lives that we own this land.
11:15For now, the Ranch Lands team will continue working their herd of over 1000 cattle with only one transmission line
11:24to navigate around.
11:25I don't really see the public benefit behind this, certainly not as a rate payer, not as just a general
11:31consumer of electricity.
11:33I think it is more for business, by business and for business.
11:38And somehow that they are still granted eminent domain rights.
11:42And there's a real private Canalits.
11:45See you then!
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