HAWAII LAWSUIT IS THE CRUCIBLE IN WHICH “CLIMATE SCIENCE” WILL BE TESTED – Maui County, Hawaii, has filed a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) alleging that it acted “negligently” by failing to power down their electrical equipment despite a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning on 7th August.
Maui County states: “The lawsuit further alleges HECO’s energized and downed power lines ignited dry fuel such as grass and brush, causing the fires”; failed to “maintain the system and power grid, which caused the systemic failures starting three different fires on August 8th”; and failed in its duty “to properly maintain and repair the electric transmission lines” and to “keep vegetation properly trimmed and maintained so as to prevent contact with overhead power lines and other electric equipment.”
Joe Biden, who reacted to the Hawaii fires with “no comment”, waited two weeks to visit the devastated State because he knows he can take the support of the Hawaiian Democratic Party organisation for granted. But Democrats in DC have been fast to leverage the fires to try to acquire more federal support for “climate emergency” measures that benefit their friends.
Sen. Ed Markey: “This is devastating. This is a climate emergency … we must act fast, provide aid, and invest in a resilient and safe future.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley: “Scientists are clear that climate chaos wreaking havoc on ecosystems everywhere is the new norm” and ‘“We need to take action immediately or else it will get even worse.”
Rep. Ro Khanna called on President Biden to declare a “climate emergency”.
Rep. Cori Bush: “The climate crisis is here and it’s killing people. It’s time for [Biden] to declare a climate emergency.”
Sen. Dick Durbin stated the wildfires were a “devastating view of our planet as we fail to adequately address the climate crisis.”
John Podesta, the White House climate czar: “To stop these disasters from getting even worse, we have to cut the carbon pollution that’s driving the climate crisis, and that’s what the Inflation Reduction Act is all about.”
The IRA, falsely described as “the largest piece of federal legislation ever to address climate change” will, in reality, distribute $783 billion to “Green business” friends, lawmakers and political activists of the Democrat Party in the largest, most cynical and self-serving display of pork barrel politics in US history.
The lawsuit is likely to be a landmark case as the rock of “climate emergency” opportunists meets the hard place of the law.
Clay Trauernicht, professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa and an environmental management expert, stated: “Blaming this on weather and climate is misleading. Hawaii’s fire problem is due to the vast areas of unmanaged, nonnative grasslands from decades of declining agriculture … [This] makes the landscape way more sensitive to bad ‘fire weather’ — hot, dry, windy conditions. It also means we get huge buildups of fuels during rainy periods.”
