As Congress returns to session, one topic I expect to be the subject of hearings and discussion is the wildfire tragedy in Maui. It is crucial that our lawmakers and fellow citizens know the truth about what happened, and why, so that they draw constructive lessons instead of destructive lessons. My team and I have spent a lot of time getting to the bottom of this story, and have discovered numerous errors in both mainstream and non-mainstream sources. Here are our findings, with supporting evidence.
Maui’s wildfire tragedy was caused by “green” policies, not warming.
The unnecessarily large wildfires in Maui were not caused by the slow warming of climate but by “green” policies that prevented proper wildfire management.
Don’t let the greens scapegoat fossil fuels.
How “green” policies caused the Maui tragedy
- Failure to actively manage flammable grasses and instead letting them grow “naturally”
- Spending money on expensive “green” energy and not on power-line maintenance
- Deprioritizing water release in favor of “green” concerns
Anti-fossil-fuel politicians are blaming Maui’s tragic wildfire on climate change. But could the 2° F warming over 150 years, and any associated climate changes, make dangerous wildfires inevitable?
No. Fossil fuels are being scapegoated to evade the real villain: “green” policies. 1
With proper wildfire management, we could prevent anything resembling the dangerous, out-of-control wildfire Maui experienced—even if temperatures were considerably warmer.
Three key reasons are fuel-load management, power-line maintenance, and firefighting.
“Green” policies undercut all three.
How “green” policies undercut Hawaii’s fuel-load management
The key to limiting wildfire damage is reducing the burnable “fuel load”. Hawaii should have actively managed its flammable grasses to reduce fuel load. But instead, it took a “green” hands-off approach.
Maui is often viewed as a scenic, natural landscape, untouched by human industry. But until recently, intensive, irrigated sugarcane plantations were present on the island. The last remnants of this industry closed in 2016 and arable land has been taken over by invasive grasses. 2
Invasive grasses pose a fire hazard because they dry out quickly and unlike sugarcane, don’t get irrigated. In combination with strong winds present in the area, this allowed for a rapid spread of fires.
Thus, experts warned for years that Maui’s grasses were a threat. 3
With the rising population in Maui County and the knowledge about land-use changes that pose a higher fire risk, you would expect active management of the landscape—e.g., with prescribed fires and fire breaches to protect the infrastructure and population.
But this didn’t happen.
Instead of focusing on the need for wildfire management, Maui has been preoccupied with “green” goals like its “Wetlands Restoration and Protection.” Observe that wildfire prevention isn’t a priority on Maui’s government website. 4
In recent years government reports found increasing wildfire hazards, identifying insufficient fuel load management and human ignition as causes.
Yet Hawaii decided to spend a fraction of what other states spend on wildfire protection. While spending a fortune on “green energy.” 5
How “green” policies undercut Hawaii’s power-line maintenance
Given Maui’s susceptibility to wildfires—in large part because of bad vegetation management—power-line maintenance should have been a priority to prevent fires from starting. Instead, money went into “green” energy projects.
About 70% of the electricity supply for the ~1.5 million population of Hawaii is generated by oil.
But Hawaii is engaging in aggressive solar rooftop programs with the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 70% by 2030, in line with political demands, which drains funds and diverts focus. 6
While Hawaii and Hawaiian Electric are spending money on expensive solar and battery incentives, HI’s only coal plant was shut down in 2022, leading to a significant rate increase as it had to be replaced with oil use. Hawaiian Electric hopes expensive “green” solar will save money someday. 7
Hawaii’s government increasingly pushes for more “green” energy. Since 2001 the state has had a Renewable Portfolio Standard, dictating 100% “green” electricity by 2045. A number of state financial incentives have been implemented to favor expensive rooftop solar—driving up costs. 8
Unsurprisingly, Hawaii’s favoritism for “green” energy projects correlated with residential electricity rate increases almost 60% above that of the US average.
While the price per kilowatt hour in Hawaii was about twice that of the US average in 2000, now it’s almost three times that. 9
Read rest at Energy Talking Points
Once again, misappropriation of public funds has cost human lives. Stringing electric wires from wooden poles was never a great idea, and we have far better options now than we did 100 years ago. Just ask PG&E. We have the money to bury and otherwise conceal and contain power lines, but we instead spend it on brainless green initiatives. As Lomborg has tirelessly pointed out we are throwing good money after bad, chasing windmills, at the expense of millions of lives annually. The red/greens have blood on their hands, again.
Do you go through a lot of tin foil?
Ridiculous. The fires are from the leftovers from Capitalism, with old banana and pineapple plantations turned to invasive weeds. Political prejudice is a poor standard for judging science or life.
Capitalism’s hands are often bound in RED tape, Commie.
Ooooh, . . now I am a Commie?
Sounds like someone got to you.
Why are you here defending green energy? Feel threatened by reasoned dissent? Are you trying to silence the truth behind your phoney climate disaster in Hawaii?
It was preventable with good old fashioned responsibility.
No banana or pineapple plantation on that part of the island. Nice try.
Even rooftop solar needs powerlines to be maintained! HI is well placed to allow new nuclear plants as its primary power source, with small, modular units on every inhabited island.
Good idea Ian but can’t have nuclear power plants–too dangerous. Even though there are nuclear powered subs and the occasional nuclear powered aircraft carrier in Pearl Harbor rather frequently. I know because I was on one that was homeported there. And we anchored off Lahaina for a few days with the reactor running the whole time–no dock and therefore no shore power. Fear of nukes is irrational but impossible to get the citizens over it.
If you want we can start with the budget for the war department, in which the terrible costs of those systems are hidden. They are not commercial, and no Big Daddy to pay for their insufficiencies in that application.
It is cost which has killed nuclear power.
Sierra Club have Blood on their Hands
That’s ridiculous.
The fires were from capitalism’s abandonment of old plantations, letting them go to invasive weeds.
If there were no weed bylaws, enact them. That grass was labelled invasive, non – native.
Round Up is cheap, but you clowns hate pesticides. People died horrible deaths.
As I have stated before, it is very typical of liberals to blame the problems they cause on others or other things. During the climate change conference in Copenhagen I remember reading articles blaming the increased crime rate in that city on the illegal availability of the Russian MP-443 Grach pistol. In truth this crime was caused by the immigration policy implemented by the liberals. As this article pointed out, the same is true of the Maui’s Wildfire tragedy being caused by green policies, and not climate change.
Tell me what green policies ere responsible for the fires.
Be specific.
Green policies distracted government from more important duties. “No water for firefighters” said the enviro-nazi.
I wrote a comment a couple days ago stating exactly one of the points in this column–that the end of the sugar cane plantations is what gave rise to the invasive grasses that provided the bulk of the fuel for the fire. When the sugar cane fields were still growing there were people who had an incentive to maintain those fields. But as the article said, the last of them closed down in 2016 and since then the grasses have taken over. But did the state do anything to reduce their effects on the landscape? Of course not so when the fire started by apparently downed power lines (goes back to the Hawaiian government mandating the utility company to spend money on wasted “green energy” causing them to neglect grid maintenance) along with the high winds from the hurricane south of Hawaii there was the perfect storm. This was exacerbated by the idiotic decision to not release water for firefighting when it was critical to do so.
Government at its finest!
Green energy had nothing to do with the fires. To assert so is a lie.
Why were they spending money and manpower on green energy when the existing infrastructure posed a mortal risk to residents?
We have been visiting West Maui for over 20 years and there haven’t been sugar cane in that area around Lahaina that whole time. In central Maui there were sugar cane fields that have since been converted to other crops. It is really dry on the west portion of the island.
“Climate change was responsible” reminds me of Flip Wilson’s line “The devil made me do it” . Maui’s politicians and public employees won’t be punished. Where would they find a judge + jury that doesn’t believe in the devil climate change?
Are you a climate change denier?
Really? Still?
More so every day. I’m convinced that our sacrifices are useless. Go to Beijing and confront your real villains. You won’t come back anytime soon.
What a clown.
I doubt anyone frequenting this website is a climate change denier. We can all see that global temperatures have indeed risen by a degree or so over the last 50 years. What we dispute is that the impact of just one “greenhouse” gas, the bete noir of climate alarmists, is almost completely responsible for this increase. The argument of alarmists is not helped by the flagrant attempts of the media to apportion every “disaster” on climate. Take Shimla for example.