Elected leaders: Big Oil should pay for rising insurance costs

A pair of elected officials from California, including a former insurance commissioner, have joined a growing chorus of voices demanding that fossil fuel companies help shoulder the financial burden of higher insurance costs stemming from extreme weather disasters made worse by climate change.

Across the country, insurance companies are passing on the costs of fossil fueled climate disasters to everyday people through higher rates and declining coverage. Meanwhile, Big Oil companies that knew their products would be responsible for worsening extreme weather continue to rake in billions of dollars in profits and evade responsibility for the growing nationwide insurance crisis.

U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, who previously served as the state’s Insurance Commissioner, and California State Sen. Jerry McNerney, called out this hypocrisy in an Op/Ed in the Mercury News and East Bay Times.

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