HECO lawsuits expose a history of injustice
by Lauren Ballesteros-Watanabe, Chapter Organizer | Reading time: 6 minutes
Every Hawaiʻi resident has their eyes on Lāhainā. In the aftermath of the deadliest fire, much of Maui’s colonial history that has been devastated by decades of corporate greed has come to light. And as we continue to fight the water and land grabs seeking to turn travesty into financial opportunity, we want to remind folks that Hawaiʻi’s energy system shares a similar story of turning a public trust resource into a profit-making machine.
Hawaiian Electric has controlled the majority of Hawaiʻi’s energy grid for over 125 years. In fact, the company predates statehood and three of its founders played key roles in the overthrow of the Queen in 1893. But today the centuries old company is feeling some well-deserved reckoning with several pending lawsuits for the deadly fires in Lāhainā.
As of this writing, Hawaiian Electric has been served by a class action lawsuit from residents, their own shareholders, and Maui County is suing over the utility’s “intentional and malicious” mismanagement of power lines. Although HECO is already fighting back, showing no signs of going down without a fight, we should dig a little deeper.
The common issues the lawsuits raise:
Rotten poles
Photo: Maui Now
Maui County says HECO failed to maintain its power poles, many of which it said were decaying, and had failed to clear out vegetation near power lines that could ignite a blaze. Power lines have been responsible for the spread of many destructive wildfires in the U.S. From 1992 to 2020 federal, state and local fire services dealt with 32,652 powerline-ignited wildfires across the country for the same negligence of vulnerable infrastructure.
California’s utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires since 2017 that wiped out more than 23,000 homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people. Just this May, they agreed to pay $150 million in a settlement over its role in the 2020 Zogg Fire, which killed four people.
On August 26, The Washington Post reported that HECO removed damaged power poles from where the fire allegedly started. Although the utility claims it did so as a part of their work to restore power, “potentially affecting evidence that is part of an official investigation.”
No Shut Off Plan for the Grid
It’s been well-documented that HECO kept its power lines electrified, even as red-flag warnings were issued and reports emerged of power lines igniting fires. Some utility companies in fire-prone states have learned from their past mistakes and implemented the type of power shut-down protocols.
Hawaiian Electric’s responded saying that they didn’t shut off power because “it’s a complicated decision,” firefighters depend on electricity pumped water. However, former Utilities Commissioner Jennifer Potter has pointed out that a proper shutdown plan can designate backup power for first responders.
Perhaps Hawaiian Electric didn’t deploy a “shutoff plan” because they didn’t have one. Documents filed in the Maui County lawsuit allege that the company had previously studied wildfire mitigation and shutoff plans filed by California utility companies during high wind and “red flag” warnings. Hawaiian Electric never created a plan of its own
HECO’s Wildfire Negligence: Profit over Safety
In 2014, the West Maui Community Wildfire Protection Plan was formalized, it included Lāhainā amongst the most fire-prone areas. The plan outlined long range safety and working across agencies and utilities to help reduce the risk of fires.
At the end of 2019, after one of the worst wildfire season’s Maui has seen, HECO issued a press release about how they had “evaluated the wildfire mitigation plans filed by the major utilities in California and studied Hawaii fire ignition maps to determine where the greatest risks are;” they committed to critical infrastructure updates and technology to accurately monitor wildfire risk.
“Hawaiian Electric concluded that it needed to do far more to prevent its power lines from emitting sparks... Nearly four years later, the company has completed little such work." Hawaiian Electric issued a press release
However, in official docket filings over the next two years with the Public Utilities Commission, HECO made only passing reference to wildfire mitigation. Even though in 2020, the Maui County Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan was updated and included a description of Lāhainā as occupying a “High” Wildfire Risk Area. It wasn’t until summer of 2022, that Hawaiian Electric sought regulatory permission to raise rates to fund a $190m comprehensive plan to harden the grid for new climate change-related stresses, including elevated risk of wildfire across Hawaiʻi. PUC docket proceedings typically take several months, sometimes years, to advance.
In the 2022 proceeding, The Consumer Advocate and Life of the Land, a common intervenor at the PUC and long-standing energy justice advocate, filed statements on how HECO should place power poles underground to reduce exposure to extreme weather events, which might result in overall lower cost. HECO resisted the suggestion saying, “On the mainland, targeted undergrounding…has shown to be a cost-effective extreme event hardening…undergrounding lateral taps in the Companies’ service territory are unknown.”
Life of the Land has said, “HECO could opt to bury all lines without anyone's permission. But this financial outlay would be financed by shareholders not ratepayers.”
In docket responses filed before the devastating Maui fires occurred, Hawaiian Electric said it believed there was an urgent need to complete the upgrades, but that it wouldn’t start on the work until it has state approval to recoup costs from customers. So despite acknowledging the growing fire risks, HECO only spent less than $245,000 on wildfire-specific projects on Maui. Let that sink in.
Whether HECO’s decision to keep power lines on during extreme weather warnings was complicated or not, their failure to update vulnerable antiquated infrastructure in fire risk areas is not. That decision for that inaction is simple. What gains profit, HECO does well. What threatens profit, HECO takes its time. The power struggle over the culpability of the Lāhainā fires and the future of its grid reveals the core injustice of having a profit-seeking corporation run the energy grid.
If Hawaiian Electric’s lines did ignite the fires, it would also echo the problems of PG&E, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 after getting sued for tens of billions of dollars for damages from fires caused by its equipment. What both utilities have in common is that they prioritized profit generating renewable power to meet government mandates over hardening their systems and reducing fire risk.
“Looking back with hindsight, the business opportunities were on the generation side, and the utility was going out for bid with all these big renewable-energy projects.” -Doug McLeod, a consultant who served for several years as the Maui county energy commissioner.
The Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi is committed to ensuring that whatever the outcome of these lawsuits are, that shareholders aren’t stuck with higher rates to “bail out” HECO. There is already $95 million from the federal government up for grabs for hardening the grid and waste removal. We want to continue with the efforts from Maui families, community leaders, and grassroots efforts around Hawaiʻi, and the world, calling to rebuild Lāhainā better than it was- from the community level up. The energy system should be no different.