Despite years of Maui wildfire warnings, the Hawaii utility giant punted on action and spent more on lobbying than prevention.
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Hawaii state government officials and Hawaii Electric Co. were both acutely aware of the wildfire threat in Maui. Yet state regulators did not force action to mitigate the threat, and Hawaii Electric, the largest utility interest in the state and the island’s largest publicly traded company, did little to address the problem.
The two interests are deeply entwined, ethics and business records show.
Every member of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, which regulates Hawaii Electric, has financial or previous professional ties to the company.
Instead of action on wildfire upgrades, Hawaii Electric splurged on peddling influence with regulators and politicians while singing its own virtues in splashy corporate marketing materials. The company even sponsored a documentary this year on Hawaiian television devoted to mitigating the impact of climate change.
After a series of Mauii wildfires in 2019, Hawaii Electric, state records show, spent only $245,000 on wildfire-specific upgrades and mitigation efforts on the island through 2022. That amount pales in comparison to the tens of millions of dollars paid out in dividends and executive compensation over the last four years.
Put another way, ethics records show Hawaii Electric spent $437,252 on lobbying state officials, including utility regulators, since 2019, far more than it spent addressing the Maui wildfire threat.
While the cause of the deadly fire last week is still under investigation, mounting evidence suggests that HEC’s equipment was at fault. On the morning of the fires on August 8th, Shane Treu, a Maui resident, was awakened by howling winds, stepped outside and took a livestream video of downed power lines igniting dry grass on a road in Lahaina.
Critics have noted that the burn progression, witness accounts, and other videos point to downed power lines as the most likely cause of the fire. Whisker Labs Inc., which monitors electrical grid activity, reported that power outages from Hawaii Electric coincide with the first reports of the Maui fire.
Hawaii Electric also failed to turn off sections of its power grid during the wind storms last week, a precautionary measure adopted by other utilities in states with high fire risks, such as California.
Hawaii Electric, in response to a request for comment, noted that it spent $84 million on general maintenance and tree work in Maui since 2018. The company spokesperson did not directly address questions about delays in wildfire-specific upgrades and its own wildfire mitigation plan.
The Hawaii PUC did not respond to a request for comment.
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