Climate activists have turned Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s admonition to never let a crisis go to waste into never let a disaster go to waste. Caroline Levine’s Aug. 27 Insight column on the causes of the tragic wildfire on Maui is a good example.

Ms. Levine wants to know who will pay for the damages caused by the fire that destroyed the town of Lahaina and complains that it won’t be the fossil fuel companies that she holds responsible for every ill consequence of climate change. The actual causes of the devastating Maui fire are more mundane, and part of the tragedy is that much of the destruction and loss of life were preventable.

The direct cause of the fire was poor maintenance of the power transmission lines that served the Lahaina area. This included old, thin, sagging posts for the lines, miles of uninsulated live wire and the accumulation of dense, invasive grasses that were allowed to cover the hillsides above the town. Local residents and officials had been warning, for years, that these conditions were a threat, but little was done about them. The fire had little to do with climate change or fossil fuel companies and everything to do with poor local policy decisions.

It would be helpful if there were more journalistic skepticism about the expansive claims and connections of the kind that Ms. Levine makes. But that is unlikely.

Martin Jones
Freeport