Posted on 08/20/2023 5:57:12 AM PDT by george76
Hawaiian Electric is under scrutiny for allegedly slow-walking modernization and repairs of its electrical grid before the fire that ripped through the island of Maui last week.
Hawaiian Electric is Hawaii’s principle electric utility, providing power to roughly 95% of the state. Financial disclosures and reports show the company worried about the state of its electrical grid, and specifically the risk of wildfires, but devoted resources to building out the utility’s green energy network with limited action to mitigate fire risk, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The scrutiny on the company’s past priorities comes as it faces allegations in court that it is to blame for the fire last week that ripped through the historic beach town of Lahaina, killing over 100 people and destroying thousands of buildings. The wildfire is the deadliest in modern American history, surpassing California’s Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise in 2019.
Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelee Kimura said during a press conference this week that the utility would be launching its own investigation. She said it would cooperate with an investigation by the state attorney general as well.
“We will be doing our own investigation. The state will be doing an investigation. We will cooperate fully in that. I think we all believe it’s important to understand what happened, and I think we all believe it’s important to make sure it never happens again,” Kimura said this week.
The utility concluded in a 2019 report after one of the worst fire seasons in Maui’s history that the company needed to do more to mitigate fire risk. From 2019 to 2022, the utility spent less than $245,000 on projects to mitigate fire risk, according to financial filings reviewed by WSJ. The utility said it spent $84 million to clear hazards away from power lines and on maintenance since 2018.
The focus on Hawaii’s energy priorities over the past decade has been dominated by its push for green energy. The state enacted a first-in-the-country law in 2015 mandating that Hawaii’s grid be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2045. In 2021, regulators finished a top-to-bottom restructuring of the regulatory framework to guide that transition, offering Hawaiian Electric large bonuses for finishing green energy projects on time, and threatening the utility with fines if it missed deadlines.
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“You have to look at the scope and scale of the transformation within [Hawaiian Electric] that was occurring throughout the system,” Mina Morita, the 2011-2015 chair of the state utilities commission, told WSJ. “While there was concern for wildfire risk, politically the focus was on electricity generation.”
The utility submitted a plan to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission last year that said the utility would spend $190 million on projects on Maui such as removing trees and brush from areas around power lines and shoring up the island’s aging electrical infrastructure. While the commission approved the plan, Hawaiian electric put off implementing it until it received approval to pay for the project by increasing rates on customers. That approval still has not been given, according to WSJ.
Not Too Green To Burn
The left is evil. The left ignores the health, welfare, safety and economic security of the people they have responsibility for to focus on a political agenda and the pursuit of personal wealth, power and indolence.
Recent events have made this very clear yet the majority of leftists are unashamed & unrepentant other than lip service to divert punishment.
Communism, gotta love it
Blaming the fire on global warming, expect more green policy insanity, along with the accompanying incompetence, waste, graft and more tragedies like the Maui fire. The Gunning-Kruger effect reigns supreme.
The 15 minute city is CODE for Gulag/Concentration Camp
Isn’t that amazing!
And of course all the NEW houses on the same land will be TOTALLY green.
And will be quadruple the price, which only the rich elites will be able to purchase.
Democrats killing off your own voters doesn’t matter once it’s all rigged anyhow. More land for the billionaires.
Utility companies are pseudo governmental entities.
Q. Will this terrible disaster finally wake the greenies up?
A. No. The fire will be blamed on Climate Change. Greenie insanity will get even worse.
Never forget Solyndra. Shovel Ready and Cash for clunkers. Maui got a clunker.
“…but devoted resources to building out the utility’s green energy network with limited action to mitigate fire risk,…”
When EVERYTHING is political, as is the case with all leftists, there is nothing, including public safety and human life the won’t be subordinated to politics.
It wasn’t global warming that caused the fire. It was the global warming cult.
Well doesn’t that just figure. Disgusting.
“.. the majority of leftists are unashamed & unrepentant other than lip service to divert punishment.“
True. But since both entities “investigating” these fires are PCWoke there will be no danger of any head or heads rolling.
https://twitter.com/resist_05/status/1693041208506089559?s=46&t=IBT-SO9sl07yiRD0yI5BFQ
BOMBSHELL: Kaleo Manuel the deputy water commissioner allowed corporations and millionaires to divert the streams and canals to fill the reservoirs that service its luxury developments…
I’m not sure you can blame communism for this. When you consider how many new coal & natural gas power stations the commies in China are building, what the idiot leftards in this country and other western countries are doing, is something completely different, suicidal or masochistic seems more like it, IMHO.
Utility companies are pseudo governmental entities.
What isn’t?
Or, at least,name a entity that isn’t subject to government overreach/interference/control by regulation. I can’t think of one.
Guy Fieri has done plenty of shows from that area and others around the state. Loves to talk about how amazing the place is.
Has he started any type of GoFundMe or special concert, charity, etc to help those people?
Or is he being told to STFU because some of the puppet masters want this tragedy to go the way of East Palestine so they grab up all the land?
It’s how deep in they are. Everything falls under governmental controls, but utilities are worse via monopolistic regulation.
The lack of competition allows bigger failures than normal companies.
The Peter principle doesn’t hold there.
It states one rises to one level above competency.
In utilities, the sky is endless.
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