SO—CLIMATE CHANGE *DID* CAUSE THE MAUI FIRE AFTER ALL

[PeteS in CA]

SO—CLIMATE CHANGE *DID* CAUSE THE MAUI FIRE AFTER ALL

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/08/so-climate-change-did-cause-the-maui-fire-after-all.php

But maybe the climatistas are right—just not in the way they know. In fact, it’s their fault. It is thought that the Maui fires were likely started by sparks from electric utility lines owned by Hawaiian Electric, just as the fires that killed nearly a 100 people in Paradise, California, a few years back were ignited by poorly maintained PG&E power lines. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Hawaiian Electric has been aware for years of the vulnerability and hazards of its electricity lines, but has done virtually nothing about it.

Why? The Journal’s subhed provides the answer: “It made little progress, focusing on a shift to clean energy.”

Between 2019 and 2022, it invested less than $245,000 on wildfire-specific projects on the island, regulatory filings show. . .  Former regulators and energy company officials said the utility was focused at that time on procuring renewable energy. . .

“You have to look at the scope and scale of the transformation within [Hawaiian Electric] that was occurring throughout the system,” said Mina Morita, who chaired the state utilities commission from 2011 to 2015. “While there was concern for wildfire risk, politically the focus was on electricity generation.”

The drive to reach the renewable goals also preoccupied private energy companies working with Hawaiian Electric and state energy officials, said Doug McLeod, a consultant who served for several years as the Maui county energy commissioner.

...
Worth noting that the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission did not grant rate increases Hawaiian Electric requested to pay for safety upgrades to the grid.

My emphasis. I suspect that, as was the case with PG&E (the article does not mention this, but I've lived >90% of my life in PG&E servoce territory), Hawaian Electric may have been forced by courts, Envirocrats, or both to NOT trim trees and brush clear of power lines with the clearance the utility knew was necessary. I'm not absolving PG&E or Hawaian Electric, just pointing out another potential contribution by Enviros and Envirocrats to the wild fires on Maui and in Paradise, CA.

[bigheadfred]

It is kind of the same with forest fires in the northwest. Stop logging to save the spotted owl. Envirowhackos shut down logging, especially in old growth forest, to save the spotted owl. That they said could only survive in old growth. But when the biologists actually looked around, they found the owls everywhere.

[Hoodat]

One can evade reality, but one cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.

~Ayn Rand~

[DB]

SO—CLIMATE CHANGE *DID* CAUSE THE MAUI FIRE AFTER ALL

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/08/so-climate-change-did-cause-the-maui-fire-after-all.php
...
Worth noting that the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission did not grant rate increases Hawaiian Electric requested to pay for safety upgrades to the grid.

My emphasis. I suspect that, as was the case with PG&E (the article does not mention this, but I've lived >90% of my life in PG&E servoce territory), Hawaian Electric may have been forced by courts, Envirocrats, or both to NOT trim trees and brush clear of power lines with the clearance the utility knew was necessary. I'm not absolving PG&E or Hawaian Electric, just pointing out another potential contribution by Enviros and Envirocrats to the wild fires on Maui and in Paradise, CA.

In both cases high winds with very dry and hot conditions were present. With above ground power lines things are still going to be carried by the wind into the power lines causing sparks/fire. To blame the power company is a stretch - an expensive stretch. The only practical solutions is keep the fuel supply down everywhere where people live.

[Hoodat]

Or you can do what we do here in the dirt-poor South - bury power lines.

[DB]

Or you can do what we do here in the dirt-poor South - bury power lines.

Burying them is often good. In mountainous areas it can be hard/expensive to do.

[libertybele]

Or you can do what we do here in the dirt-poor South - bury power lines.

I live in the deep south - our power lines and cable lines are not buried.  You would think with going through hurricanes they'd bury them.  Nope they just repair them and when a storm hits -- we lose power and cable for days/weeks. 

[Kamaji]

Or you can do what we do here in the dirt-poor South - bury power lines.

Burying power lines can be very expensive, particularly in places where the water table is close to the surface and the lines are therefore likely to be submerged at least part of the time.

[PeteS in CA]

Burying them is often good. In mountainous areas it can be hard/expensive to do.

Paradise, CA is in the Sierra foothills, at almost 4800' altitude. That is higher than some states' highest point. So, yeah, power lines were run above ground. BUT that was decades ago, probably before I was born. Wildfires wiping out towns are a relatively recent thing. Fire Seasons in CA have been worse the past couple of decades, and it's because Enviros and Envirocrats prevent residents from clearing fire breaks around homes and forbid necessary forest management. The 2003 Old Fire was started by arson, but along with natural phenomena like Santa Ana Winds, one thing that fueled it in the Lake Arrowhead area was dry dead trees area residents wanted to clear out, but Envirocrats forbade it. Well, the fire "cleared" the dead trees instead ... along with homes and other structures.

[DB]

Paradise, CA is in the Sierra foothills, at almost 4800' altitude. That is higher than some states' highest point. So, yeah, power lines were run above ground. BUT that was decades ago, probably before I was born. Wildfires wiping out towns are a relatively recent thing. Fire Seasons in CA have been worse the past couple of decades, and it's because Enviros and Envirocrats prevent residents from clearing fire breaks around homes and forbid necessary forest management. The 2003 Old Fire was started by arson, but along with natural phenomena like Santa Ana Winds, one thing that fueled it in the Lake Arrowhead area was dry dead trees area residents wanted to clear out, but Envirocrats forbade it. Well, the fire "cleared" the dead trees instead ... along with homes and other structures.

When California stopped logging and fire prevention forest management it started the cycle of fuel accumulation and then eventually fire cleaning it out. Either people do it or nature does it.

[libertybele]

Burying power lines can be very expensive, particularly in places where the water table is close to the surface and the lines are therefore likely to be submerged at least part of the time.

A lot of this city sits on a coral shelf so it is difficult in areas to bury power lines or cable. When we put a pool in at the other house, the house rattled for a couple of days from the jackhammer that they were using.  We wanted 6' at one end and after they were able to dig out a large piece of coral we wound up with 6.5'.  That was fine with us.

[jafo2010]

One day, the idiots babbling about climate change will move on to some other idiocy.  Eventually the dumbest of our society will realize that there is no climate change, just a climate that is never constant, with moments of extreme.  I suspect that is the way it has been for hundreds of thousands of years.