The state’s largest insurer, State Farm, recently imposed big rate hikes on their California customers — an average of 17% on homeowners — to help make up for the company’s losses from the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January.
Op-Eds

Opinion: Insurance companies should sue Big Oil for climate change damage

By Jerry McNerney and John Garamendi

The state’s largest insurer, State Farm, recently imposed big rate hikes on their California customers — an average of 17% on homeowners — to help make up for the company’s losses from the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January.

State Farm also hiked insurance rates by an average of 15% on renters and condominium owners and 38% on apartment owners. And the insurance giant is requesting another 11% average rate increase on all residential property owners in the state.

State Farm is not alone. Other insurance companies are asking California to allow them to levy rate hikes on their customers in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires. And the threat of more climate disasters is prompting many insurance companies to refuse to renew policies or abandon communities — and even the state — completely.

Instead of turning their backs on California or further raising prices on residents who can’t afford it, insurance companies should turn their sights on the true culprits of climate change: oil and gas companies.

It’s time for insurers to demand that Big Oil and Gas pay their fair share for the massive climate-related economic damage they’ve caused. And it’s time to spare overburdened property owners from more unaffordable rate hikes.

 

To read the full op-ed, click here.