The recent catastrophic wildfires in Hawaii have raised serious questions about the causes of such a destructive event. While some have blamed it on climate change and global warming, Hawaiian officials attribute the cause to alleged failures from the state’s main power utility company and downed power lines.
It has now been an entire *month* since the deadly Hawaii fires and gov’t
officials still won’t tell us how many children are missingAt what point does this become criminal activity?! https://t.co/jvfBk2NkxI
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) September 4, 2023
In response, Maui County has filed a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) and its subsidiaries, claiming that they failed to properly power down live electrical equipment despite a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning earlier this month. The lawsuit alleges that HECO’s energized and downed power lines ignited dry fuel such as grass and brush, resulting in several deadly fires on the island.
Maui County claims that HECO has a duty “to properly maintain and repair the electric transmission lines, and other equipment including utility poles associated with their transmission of electricity”. In addition, they allege failure to maintain the system and power grid which caused systemic failures starting three different fires on August 8th.
officials in Maui said the fires were caused by downed power lines and failures by the state’s main power utility company.
Due to these facts, the government of Maui County, Hawaii has filed a lawsuit against the Hawaii Electric Company and its subsidiaries for neglecting t… pic.twitter.com/XBkABlwvqm
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) August 29, 2023
However, Democratic lawmakers are still blaming human-caused global warming for the disaster which has claimed 115 lives so far. Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Cori Bush of Missouri as well and White House clean energy czar John Podesta have all called for action to reduce carbon emissions to prevent future natural disasters like these fires.
Experts have suggested that while climate change may be playing a role in exacerbating these events, poor forest management is actually at fault here due to an accumulation of fuels during rainy periods which makes these areas more susceptible to fire damage when exposed to hot or windy conditions.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green explicitly states he will use the government to acquire the Maui land destroyed by the fires. pic.twitter.com/IGiF8VD4Ov
— Joni Job (@jj_talking) August 27, 2023
Clay Trauernicht, an environmental management expert from the University of Hawaii at Manoa stated “Hawaii’s fire problem is due to vast areas of unmanaged nonnative grasslands from decades of declining agriculture.”
Therefore, it appears that issues with land management are key factors leading up to this tragedy rather than solely attributing it directly to climate change alone.