When The Media Says "Experts" They Mean Paid Corporate Shills (Part 17)

As originally reported by Lee Fang, formerly of the Intercept but now on Substack.

Out of all the theories put forth in public discourse to explain the devastating Maui fire none seem to touch on the evident culprit, Hawaii Electric Company, and their incestuous relationship with the institution that’s supposed to regulate them i.e. the public utility commission. At least one resident on the island captured video of a powerline, knocked down by high winds, arcing on the ground and setting the dry grass it landed in ablaze. Since the high wind speeds occurred across the entire island, and not just across the street from where this man filmed, it isn’t much of a stretch to assume that there were downed power lines elsewhere and perhaps just flickering lines that could have set other patches of dry grass ablaze. This isn’t the only circumstantial evidence that damaged power lines started the fire. A security camera at the Maui bird conservation center captured video of an arch flash in the forest, followed by an immediate power outage. When the Center’s generator kicked on, the camera captured a forest fire at the exact spot of the arch flash. 10 sensors in Makawao, the town where the conservation center is located, also captured the abrupt outage. At least one other arc flash followed by a fire near a substation was captured in the town of Lahaina, while seven sensors at Whisker’s lab, in the same town, recorded two faults at 2:44 am and 3:30 am. In total 34 sensors on the island corroborated multiple power faults that preceded the fires.

Hawaii Electric’s Priorities

Open records show that the utility company spent $437,252 lobbying the state legislature and only $245,000 on wildfire prevention and mitigation measures. The company also prioritized ESG over wildfire prevention publishing ESG reports which highlighted it’s focus on “renewables” and having a diverse board of directors. Through their corporate foundation they also sponsored an hour documentary broadcast on local TV patting themselves on the back for their so-called climate resiliency, high ESG score and ironically touted their wildfire prevention plan. They brought on Senator Brian Schatz and Obama to fawn over them as well.

The Fix

Hawaii public commissions chair, Leodoloff Asuncion, also made an appearance in the documentary. Ethics disclosures reveal that Asuncion and another PUC commissioner, Naomi Kuwaye, were provided an all expenses paid trip to meet with utility industry shills in New York. Both previously worked for Hawaii Electric: Asuncion held unnamed previous positions and Kuwaye as an attorney who represented the utility company through Ashford & Wriston, LLP. Commissioner Colin Yost owned and managed a solar panel company, RevoluSun, that partners with Hawaii Electric. The regulators’ financial ties seemed to benefit Hawaii Electric in numerous ways. In June of last year, Hawaii Electric published a plan to address the risk of their utility system causing a wildfire and identified West Maui as a critical area to begin upgrades. They estimated that his plan would cost $6.2 million and this as a pretext to hike rates. Yet instead of forcing the company to act on the plan they allowed it to be abandoned in their docket. Hawaii Electric was also not required to turn off sections of the power grid during windstorms which PUCs in states with high wildfire risks do require. The Utility company also failed to clear the grass around its poles which may have prevented many of these fires. Apparently, the appointed “experts” on Hawaii’s PUC were more concerned with their camaraderie with the utility company than public safety because this was not the first wildfire Maui experienced in recent years. 2,000 acres of Maui were burned in 2018 and an additional 9,000 acres in 2019.

Originally posted on Quora August 22, 2023