Fire prevention project halted in Waikōloa Village by Trump Administration

A $75,000 fire mitigation project on the Big Island was abruptly halted after the U.S. Department of Energy rescinded its grant funding as part of the Trump Administration’s slashing of federal spending.

The project involved hiring arborists to cut down 20 large kiawe trees that are encroaching on power lines in the rural South Kohala community of Waikōloa Village. Hawaiian Electric’s Wildfire Safety Strategy says the village is the fourth riskiest place for wildfires in Hawai‘i and Maui counties as well as the City and County of Honolulu.

The importance of keeping trees and other vegetation away from power lines was highlighted by the Maui Fire Department’s cause and origin report of the Aug. 8, 2023, Lahaina wildfire.

The report determined that sparks from a broken power line striking dry, unmaintained vegetation around the pole started the fire that eventually led to the tragic deaths of 102 people and the destruction of most of the historic seaside town.

Soon after the Lahaina fire, Hawaiian Electric received a $95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to prevent wildfires and harden the grid as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act under the Biden Administration.

The power company matched the federal grant with $95 million from Hawaiian Electric ratepayers for a total of $190 million for grid resilience throughout Hawai‘i, Honolulu and Maui Counties.

But in late January, Hawaiian Electric received a letter from the Department of Energy that said effective Jan. 28 the company had to stop incurring all costs associated with its 11 Community Benefits Plans projects for grid resilience that would have been funded with this grant. The Waikōloa Village project was one of those projects.

According to the letter, the department is moving “aggressively” to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order entitled: “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” 

This move includes suspending any activities in loans, grants, cost-sharing agreements and contracts for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, Community Benefits Plans, which support justice, equity, security and resilience through its projects, and Justice40 initiatives, which promote equitable investment in infrastructure projects.

The Waikōloa Village project would help make the small town surrounded by open space more resilient to wildfires, which already have been a threat, including the 2021 Mana Road Fire that got out of control.

The village was evacuated during the fire that scorched 44,000 acres. That evacuation magnified the issue that the South Kohala community only has one way in and one way out: Waikōloa Road.

Hawaiian Electric spokeswoman Kristen Okinaka said the company still expects to receive the full $95 million grant, “but the approximately $5 million that was earmarked for Community Benefits Agreements will be shifted to other infrastructure projects.”

According to the Department of Energy letter, additional guidance will be forthcoming. It said recipients who have DEI and Community Benefits Plans activities in their awards will be contacted by their grants officer to initiate award modifications consistent with Trump’s order.

Okinaka said the company planned to use the $5 million to empower local organizations to continue their wildfire mitigation work and/or identify projects within the community to advance wildfire safety efforts.

“We’re continuing to work with the [Department of Energy] to comply with the recent orders and to develop a path forward,” Okinaka said.

Matt Chalker, executive director for Wildfire Safety Advocates of Waikōloa, started talking with Hawaiian Electric last fall about getting some of the federal funds to hire arborists to cut down mature kiawe trees of heights up to 30 feet.

Known locally by residents as the Waikōloa 12 Line, the poles are about 50 feet from homes and energized at 69,000 volts across nearly 5 miles.

The trees targeted to be cut span about 1 to 1.5 miles under the lines.

Chalker received an email Jan. 27 from the power company informing him the federal funding was rescinded effectively immediately, halting the project.

While the federal grant is no longer available, Okinaka said Hawaiian Electric already executed $350,000 worth of contracts on two of the 11 Community Benefits Plans projects under the grant.

Those projects are expanding the Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization’s Firewise USA Movement on Hawai‘i Island, in Maui County and on O‘ahu and creating a firebreak behind Leihoku Elementary School on O‘ahu.

The company will pay to complete the two projects.

The Waikōloa Village project and eight others were in various stages of commitment when the grant was rescinded.

“We were in preliminary discussions with several Hawai‘i Island organizations, including the Wildfire Safety Advocates of Waikōloa, when we received notice from the [Department of Energy],” Okinaka said. “Even without federal support, we will continue to work on funding opportunities for planned projects impacted by the change in federal policy.”

Okinaka didn’t provide additional details about the eight other projects that lost funding, saying they were in conceptual, discussion or negotiation phases. However, she did confirm some were on Hawai‘i Island.

To some Waikōloa residents, the project was not wasteful but much-needed.

They include Bob Yuhnke, who led the charge to get the trees cut down after the Lahaina wildfires.

“If one of those power lines snaps in a high wind situation, the trees would burst into flames,” Yuhnke said.

Chalker said telecommunication and energized lines share the same poles. The trees are closest to the telecommunication line.

“I don’t care how these trees get cut down, I just want them to be cut down,” he said. “I’m hopeful [Hawaiian Electric] steps up to the plate and provides a solution.”

“We’re going to get these high wind events,” said Hawai‘i County Fire Chief Kazuo Todd about the Waikōloa area, unaware of the cut to federal funding at the time. “We’re going to have fires, and we have to look at hazard mitigation.”

Waikōloa is a high wildfire risk area.

Hawaiian Electric in June 2024 launched its Public Safety Power Shutoff program, which shuts down power to communities in areas of high wind during extremely dry, windy, warm conditions — basically weather ripe for sparking wildfires.

The program impacts about 19,300 electric customers on the Big Island between Kohala and Waikōloa in North Hawai‘i, Kalaoa and Hōlualoa in West Hawai‘i and Mauna Kea Access Road and Waiki‘i Ranch.

The power company says these areas have a combination of risk factors for wildfires, including exposure to strong winds, dry conditions, vegetation prone to wildfires and historically higher rates of wildfires.

Yuhnke said cutting the trees would be only a temporary fire mitigation solution. The goal is for Hawaiian Electric to put the lines underground.

“We think this area is a prime candidate for that treatment so the lines are no longer capable of snapping in the wind,” he said.

Chalker agreed; however, he was informed that the cost to bury the lines would be about $11 million per mile.

Okinaka said Hawaiian Electric is committed to identifying sections of its distribution system where undergrounding is the most efficient way to prevent fires.

“However, undergrounding is 5 [to] 10 times more expensive than an equivalent overhead power line and will be implemented in strategic areas where this type of wildfire prevention will be most impactful,” she said.

Waikōloa now has nearly 7,500 residents and 4,000 homes, but is experiencing explosive growth that adds to concerns about fires and evacuation.

There are currently a variety of housing projects on the county books, with the 139-unit Na Hale Makoa already underway.

Yuhnke said: “The fire threat is magnified as more people are added to the population.”