What was the lie about the lightning and muck fires?

Readers first learn about the muck fires in chapter 2 of part 1. Paul and his family are told that the nearby fields are full of "lignite." The stuff is highly flammable and burns slowly like coal. That is why the young man who tells Paul's family about it says that it has been burning for as long as he can remember. The muck fire is stirred up every so often because the field is struck by lightning.
Paul's mom is outraged at this, and she plans to tell the Homeowners' Association; however, it won't do any good. The Homeowners' Association knows about it, and they say that they can't do anything about it: this is the lie. The Homeowners' Association can do something about it. The muck fires are stirred up because lightning hits the fields. That wasn't always the case. The area used to have trees, and those trees would take the lightning strikes, which would prevent the electric current from igniting the fires. Those trees were cut down for the development. Allowing trees to grow back over much of that area would eventually solve the muck fire problem.