Posted on 08/24/2023 8:48:50 PM PDT by texas booster
Today, the County of Maui filed a lawsuit against Maui Electric Company, Hawaiian Electric Company, Hawaiʻi Electric Light Company and Hawaiian Electric Industries for civil damages allegedly caused to the County’s public property and resources as a result of recent Maui fires, including fires in Lahaina and Kula.
The lawsuit was filed in the Second Circuit Court and the case number is 2CCV-23-0000238.
The lawsuit alleges that the electric companies acted negligently by failing to power down its electrical equipment despite a Red Flag Warning issued by the National Weather Service on Aug. 7.
The lawsuit further alleges Hawaiʻi Electric Light Company (HECO) energized and downed power lines ignited dry fuel such as grass and brush, causing the fires. The lawsuit also alleges failure to maintain the system and power grid, which caused the systemic failures starting three different fires on Aug. 8.
During a press conference last week Monday, Hawaiian Electric president and CEO Shelee Kimura responded to media questions about why the company did not power down as a precaution during the red flag warning and wildfire event.
“It’s worth noting that even in places where this has been used, it has been controversial, and it’s not universally accepted. It can be seen as creating a hardship for those customers that have medical needs that are at higher risk. So these programs, particularly for elder or other vulnerable people who have specialized medical equipment. This can be very high risk for them. So that’s why many don’t have it.
It also would require coordination with first responders. And as you have probably seen, or even reported, that in Lahaina, the electricity powers the pumps that provide the water, and so that was also a critical need during that time,” said Kimura.
(Excerpt) Read more at mauinow.com ...
Maui County stands alongside the people and communities of Lahaina and Kula to recover public resource damages and rebuild after these devastating utility-caused fires. These damages include losses to public infrastructure, fire response costs, losses to revenues, increased costs, environmental damages and losses of historical or cultural landmarks, according to a county news release.
HECO is a for-profit, investor-owned utility that trades publicly on the New York Stock Exchange that serves 95% of the Hawai’i customer base.
Civic damages by following the laws created by the state government.
But, of course, it is always someones' fault other than the state officials responsible for keeping citizens safe.
And, where are all the children?
Baron & Budd and Diab Chambers have been selected by public entities 95 times to recover civil damages in wildfire cases.
And they vote 100% of the time for their Democrat owners.
Thank you, Jonty.
That is exactly the case as in Maui.
The utility is wholly dependent on its Democrat taskmasters, and does whatever the politicians deem is most important for the next election.
I’d say eff it and shut it down take out all the generation and leave.
The blame game begins. Like the game hot potato, it will land with someone, but I doubt it will be landing on the actual entity that started the fires.
“Civic damages by following the laws created by the state government.”
Yep. I read earlier today the utility was allowed to spend only 1% of what they requested for fire prevention. The money that should have been spent on right of way maintenance went to climate projects.
I would suggest that he local Fire Department is to blame.
Yeah, you’re going to have a hard time doing that if you didn’t have any water in your fire hydrants.
isn’t Blackrock a major shareholder of the electric company in Maui?
(snip)
Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Hedge funds don’t have many shares in Hawaiian Electric Industries. Looking at our data, we can see that
******* the largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc. with 11% of shares outstanding.**************
In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 10% and 3.0% of the stock. Additionally, the company’s CEO Constance Lau directly holds 0.6% of the total shares outstanding.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kind-shareholders-own-hawaiian-electric-083210542.html?guccounter=1
Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hawaiian Electric Industries is not owned by hedge funds. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 11% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 9.2% and 3.1% of the stock. Additionally, the company's CEO Constance Lau directly holds 0.0057045 of the total shares outstanding.
Interesting. Your Yahoo! article is a year newer than the one that I found.
Did Blackrock buy Vanguard?
the only reason I was aware of the Blackrock link was from viewing reports on Alex Jones.
Firemen have families too. As a practical matter, at some point they had to bail and try to protect their families, if the water is shut off.
>> Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t,
exactly — no other scenarios when it concerns the petulant Rats
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