US President Joe Biden visits an area devastated by wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii on August 21, 2023. The Bidens are expected to meet with first responders, survivors, and local officials following deadly wildfires in Maui. While Democratic Party lawmakers promote the climate change narrative as the cause of the Hawaii wildfire despite the Maui county government suing HECO for mishandling its grid, experts say the more closely related factor was the state’s poor management of forests and greenery.
There have been conflicting claims about the cause of the wildfire that swept over the Hawaiian island of Maui, which already killed dozens and brought unprecedented damage to thousands of hectares of property.
Maui vs. HECO
It was earlier reported that the Maui County government has filed a lawsuit against the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) and its subsidiaries for its alleged negligence as the cause of the massive fire. The county accused the utility firm of "inexcusably" keeping their power lines energized in early August despite the warnings from the National Weather Service to watch out for high winds and a chance of a fire developing because of it.
Maui County barrister John Fiske stated the local government was suing HECO for damages that would run into the tens of hundreds of millions of dollars.
On the other hand, HECO has expressed dismay over the county's decision to take the matter to court while inquiry about the incident was still ongoing.
Read Also: Over 1,000 Maui Wildfire Victims Remain Unidentified Due to DNA Sample Shortages
Wildfire Caused by Global Warming, Democrats Say
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party insisted that climate change caused the wildfires due to anthropogenic global warming.
Hawaiian governor Josh Green was among the first to correlate the wildfire to global warming, saying climate change claimed to amplify the failures of officials and stakeholders to act on the incident properly.
On Capitol Hill, Democrat lawmakers were also quick to blame man-made climate change for the wildfires, as per Fox News Digital.
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), an original sponsor of the Green New Deal, called the wildfire a "climate emergency" and called for speedy aid, action, and resolution to prevent another wildfire from spreading to any part of the country. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) concurred with Markey's sentiments in a separate social media post.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) also said the wildfires were a devastating view of Earth because the planet has collectively failed to address what the party called a climate crisis.
House Democrat Ro Khanna (CA), who led a recent congressional investigation into Big Oil, called on US President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency to respond to the fires, with Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) echoing her colleague separately.
White House clean energy adviser John Podesta also correlated the wildfire to climate change, calling for policies that would reduce the US's carbon emissions to prevent disasters like Maui from happening again.
Environmental Experts: Relating Maui Wildfire to Climate Change Misleading
However, environmental experts have dismissed claims made by lawmakers that climate change caused the Maui wildfires.
University of Hawaii at Manoa professor and environmental management expert Clay Trauernicht called the lawmakers' call of correlating the wildfire to the weather and climate as misleading as Hawaii's fire problem was more related to the vast areas of "unmanaged, non-native grasslands" from decades of declining agriculture.
This poor forest and brush management, Trauernicht added, allowed fires to spread rapidly and made them harder to contain.
Related Article: Maui County Suing Local Electric Company After Recent Wildfires; Here's Why
