While most conservatives in the United States sat at the edge of their seats on Thursday watching the GOP House Oversight Committee's first Biden impeachment inquiry hearing, one of the most important hearings of the year had little to no coverage.

On September 28, 2023, during the U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, lawmakers questioned Shelee Kimura, President of Hawaiian Electric, and other utility officials about how the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century began. Lawmakers also raised into question whether Lahaina's electrical grid played a role.

According to an article written by PBS, "Shelee Kimura, President of Hawaiian Electric, Maui’s sole electricity provider, promised to gather and provide more details about exactly what happened on Aug. 8, including when the power stopped flowing through downed power lines in Lahaina and exactly when the decision was made to trigger a procedure designed to make sure that broken lines were not re-energized.

Kimura said the utility doesn’t have the right or responsibility to clear dry brush or other vegetation on private property — even if it is in the right-of-way, directly underneath power lines — unless the plants or trees are tall enough to potentially contact the lines.

Asked to address whether the electrical grid in Lahaina was safe and properly maintained, Kimura told the committee that 2,000 of the company’s wooden power poles had not been tested or treated for possible termites, rot or other problems since 2013. The other 29,000 poles on the island had been assessed under Hawaiian Electric’s “test and treat” program, she said, but the remaining 2,000 had not yet been done.

Kimura said she didn’t know exactly where those untested poles were located or if they were in the area of the Lahaina fire. But at least one pole near where the fire started was tested and treated in 2022, she said.
Many different factors like drought need to be taken into account when looking at the fire, she said, and a lot of people and organizations were involved.

“There’s a system here that was in play for all of these conditions to happen all at one time that resulted in the devastation in Lahaina,” she said.
Both Kimura and Asuncion addressed the possibility of burying power lines underground to reduce the risk of wildfires, especially in high-wind conditions. About 50 percent of the power lines in Hawaii are now underground, Kimura said. However, Asuncion said burying power lines can be cost-prohibitive, and has a big impact on rate-payers."

The mainstream media reports that the Lahaina fires killed at least 97 people and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, but locals across Instagram and X tell a different story. Details about the true cause of the Maui fires are still unclear. This is a developing.


For the full original story, visit PBS.