A new bill in California would allow victims of wildfires and other weather-related catastrophes, along with their insurance companies, to sue oil companies, which the bill’s authors accuse of fueling climate change and being “responsible for the disasters.”
But opponents of the bill say its backers are engaged in “theatrics” and are scapegoating the fossil fuel industry for “complicated” disasters caused by a variety of factors.
Senate Bill 222, or the Affordable Insurance and Climate Recovery Act, was introduced on Monday by state senator Scott Wiener, a San Francisco progressive, and was co-authored by seven other California Democrats, according to Wiener’s office.
Wiener’s office said in a statement that the legislation, if passed, will improve “insurance affordability in California by shifting the burden of increased insurance costs away from California ratepayers to the fossil fuel companies driving the climate crisis.”
Wiener’s office said fossil fuel companies have “intentionally misled the public for decades about the impacts of their products” and are “responsible” for a variety of disasters the state has faced in recent years — wildfires, mud slides, and sea-level rise.
The bill would allow disaster victims and insurance companies to “recover damages from Big Oil” in court, and will help to “boost insurance affordability,” according to Wiener’s office. The bill could also allow the taxpayer-subsidized insurer of last resort — the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, or FAIR plans — to sue for damages.
The bill is sponsored by three left-wing environmental groups; the Center for Climate Integrity, California Environmental Voters, and Extreme Weather Survivors.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Wiener said the oil industry “has known that its product was fueling climate change and was going to lead to these disasters for decades, because they had the science. They sat on that science, they suppressed it, and they have done all of this in order to make money.”
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, chief executive of the Western States Petroleum Association, responded in a statement, saying it’s a “shame” that Wiener sees the devastating Los Angeles fires this month “as nothing more than a political opportunity.”
The bill, she said, is “the latest installment of an ongoing effort to scapegoat our industry — and the thousands of hardworking women and men who keep California running — for political gain, while complex problems continue to go unsolved.”
“We need real solutions to help victims in the wake of this tragedy, not theatrics,” she added. “Every day, consumers, including Sen. Wiener, rely on and choose to use gasoline-powered cars and purchase products made from fossil fuels. Our economy depends on oil and gas even as California looks to reduce its carbon footprint. The vulnerabilities in the existing oil and gas infrastructure must be addressed. Otherwise, technical realities will get in the way of aspirational goals if left ignored.”
Progressives and environmentalists have overwhelmingly claimed that the L.A. fires, which have damaged or destroyed more than 16,000 structures and led to at least 28 deaths, are the result of climate change. But California, with its Mediterranean climate, hilly terrain, and heavy winds, has always been susceptible to wildfires. Conservative critics allege that L.A.’s fires got out of hand not because of climate change, but because of poor land management by state leaders that left the city’s foothills primed to burn.
State senator Roger Niello, a Republican who serves as vice chair of the senate insurance committee, told reporters that Wiener’s bill “furthers the false narrative that this is all about climate change.”
“It is, of course, much more complicated than that,” he said. “I would ask, what about forest management? I’d also ask, what about the fire department in Los Angeles, whose budget was significantly cut last year. So, will senator Weiner and [senator Sasha Renée] Perez include in their bill the ability to sue those entities for their role in this, too? It is a complicated issue not anywhere near as simple as they would have you believe.”