The Deadly Impact of Government Incompetence (recent Maui fires)

By Dan Mitchell.

"Mostly because politicians focus on the seen rather than the unseen , I’ve unfortunately had several reasons to write about government policies and premature death.

• Government-run health care
• Pandemic lockdowns
• FDA regulation
• Gun control
• Anti-vaping rules
• Bans on organ sales
• Pharma price controls

Today, we’re sadly going to add to this list.

Why? Because the Hawaii government’s short-sighted incompetence contributed to the deadly fire on the island of Maui.

The Wall Street Journal opined about its deadly blunders, most of which were driven by climate alarmism.

…one culprit that seems to be emerging is the tradeoff the local utility had to navigate between power grid safety and the government-mandated green energy transition. …If Hawaiian Electric’s lines did ignite the fires, it would echo the problems of PG&E, the California utility… What both utilities have in common is that they prioritized growing renewable power to meet government mandates over hardening their systems and reducing fire risk. In 2015 Hawaii lawmakers required that 100% of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2045. …Every dollar the utility spent on subsidizing solar and connecting renewables to the grid was one less dollar available for strengthening equipment and removing combustible brush. …Not until last year did the utility seek state approval to raise rates for wildfire-safety improvements, which it still hasn’t received. …Grid upgrades to achieve the net-zero promised land will cost another $2.5 trillion by 2050, according to a Princeton University study. Something will invariably give. And as we’ve seen in California and Hawaii, it may be safety.

Politicians and bureaucrats also failed in other ways, as explained by Connor O’Keeffe in his column for the Mises Institute.

Human choices, land use, and government policies play a big role in how harmful hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flash floods, and wildfires are to the affected communities. …it’s becoming clear that government failure did much to make this disaster worse—and possibly even started it. While the so-called experts are blaming climate change—and in the process demanding that government grab even more power and authority ostensibly to someday give us better weather—the destructiveness of this fire was the product of an all-powerful and all-incompetent régime. …To review, a power company shielded from competition by the state placed electrical infrastructure among highly flammable state-owned grass fields above the historic city of Lahaina, which the government was twice warned were highly susceptible to fire. And once a fire broke out, a combination of defective water infrastructure, terrible communication by government officials, and only one escape route doomed the people of Lahaina to the worst wildfire experienced in this country in over a hundred years. This was government failure through and through.

In closing, government screwed up.

That being said, I’m not going to pretend to know what share of the blame should be assigned to politicians and bureaucrats.  After all, disasters happen and it may be impossible – or excessively costly – to preemptively deal with all contingencies.

But some humility and repentance by government officials would be a silver lining to this dark cloud. After all, I hope we can all agree that human lives matter more than the alarmism of left-environmentalists."