Originally published August 28, 2023 12:51 pm PDT
As the devastation in Maui continues to unravel, an ongoing blame game surrounding the cause of the fires has taken a new turn.
Initial accusations pointing toward so-called “climate change” as the root cause of the disaster have been contested, with Maui County officials now pointing a finger at Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), Fox News is reporting.
According to a lawsuit recently filed by the Maui County government, HECO, along with its subsidiaries, allegedly neglected to shut down their live electrical equipment during a significant windstorm flagged by the National Weather Service on August 7th.
This oversight reportedly led to the downing of power lines, which, in turn, sparked the deadly fires.
“The lawsuit alleges that the Defendants acted negligently by failing to power down their electrical equipment despite a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning on August 7th,” revealed Maui County’s statement.
Furthermore, it’s alleged that HECO’s “energized and downed power lines ignited dry fuel such as grass and brush, causing the fires.”
The suit also points to systemic lapses in maintaining the power grid, culminating in three separate fires the following day.
Despite these revelations, the narrative surrounding the fires’ cause has been dominated by assertions linking the catastrophe to so-called “global warming.”
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) expressed his concerns, saying, “This is devastating. This is a climate emergency.”
Such sentiments were echoed by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) who emphasized the pressing need for immediate action in light of “climate chaos.”
Calls for a formal “climate emergency” declaration by President Biden were also sounded by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).
Adding her voice to the chorus, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) stated, “The climate crisis is here and it’s killing people. It’s time for [Biden] to declare a climate emergency.”
White House clean energy czar, John Podesta, in a bid to underscore the severity of the situation, drew attention to several climate-related disasters that have struck the U.S. in recent times.
“This summer has brought one climate disaster after another, from extreme heat in Arizona and Texas and across the Southeast, to floods in Vermont and upstate New York, to thick smoke from Canadian wildfires,” said Podesta.
He then linked the Maui tragedy, which took over 100 lives, to climate change, claiming it was the “largest loss of life of a fire in the last 100 years in America.”
However, expert voices have emerged to challenge this perspective.
Many believe that the fires can be attributed more to poor forest and brush management practices, as well as dwindling agriculture over the years, rather than climate change.
Clay Trauernicht, an environmental management expert from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, shed light on this alternative viewpoint, Fox News emphasized.
“Blaming this on weather and climate is misleading,” he stated. “Hawai’i’s fire problem is due to the vast areas of unmanaged, nonnative grasslands from decades of declining agriculture.”
He further elucidated that the transformation of the landscape over the years has made it more susceptible to unfavorable fire conditions, while also causing the buildup of fuels during wet spells.
As investigations continue and experts weigh in, the narrative surrounding the Maui fires remains multifaceted.
