Shellenberger: Hawaii Wildfires Are the Result of the Failure to Invest in Wildfire Prevention, Not Climate Change

‘Instead, [the Hawaiian Electric] invested all of its time and money into renewables’

EXCERPT:

SHELLENBERGER: "I think the most important thing for people to understand about Hawaii’s wildfires was that the same thing happened there that happened in California, which is that they had failed to invest in wildfire protection. The main cause, it appears, of those wildfires is sparks from electrical wires going into highly flammable vegetation. The utility, the Hawaiian Electric utility had failed to invest not even a quarter million dollars into wildlife protection -- I’m sorry, into wildfire prevention. Instead it had invested all of its time and money into renewables. And so just like in California, they have failed to properly manage the forests and the grasslands, keeping the area around the electrical wires clear. That was the cause of the fire, not modestly higher temperatures or slightly less rain."

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