First congressional hearing on Maui wildfire to focus on island's sole electric provider and grid

  • 📰 YahooFinanceCA
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 58 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 26%
  • Publisher: 63%

Canada Canada Headlines News

Canada Canada Latest News,Canada Canada Headlines

Hawaii's top public utility officials and the president of Hawaiian Electric are expected to testify Thursday in a congressional hearing about the role the electrical grid played in last month's deadly Maui wildfire. Members of a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee are expected to question the utility officials about how the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century began — and whether the electrical grid in Lahaina was safe and properly maintained. The fire killed at least 97 peopl

on Aug. 8, when strong winds appeared to cause a Hawaiian Electric powerline to fall, igniting dry brush and grass near a large subdivision.

posed by the electrical grid, the fire investigation and other issues. The lawmakers said that a complete understanding of how the fire started is needed to ensure it doesn't happen again anywhere in the U.S. She also wrote that running the utility requires a complex and consequential balance of pursuing safe, reliable power at a reasonable cost.

Whether the lines were fully de-energized — meaning they were not transmitting any electrical voltage — might still be in question, however. At least one Lahaina resident told the Associated Press that their power came back on around 2 p.m., and Maui Police Chief John Pelletier has said that his officers were trying to keep people from driving over live power lines later that afternoon as residentsAsuncion Jr.

“The devastation of the August wildfires should never happen again,” Asuncion wrote. “In thinking about this priority, the Commission aims to ensure to the greatest extent possible that electric utility operations, infrastructure, and equipment in Hawaii are safe, reliable, and resilient to natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding.”

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 47. in CA

Canada Canada Latest News, Canada Canada Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Hawaii Utility Chief to Testify in Congress Over Deadly Maui FireHawaiian Electric Co.’s chief executive officer plans to tell Congress Thursday that the deadly Lahaina wildfire wasn’t the company’s fault.
Source: BNNBloomberg - 🏆 83. / 50 Read more »