The oil and gas companies are responsible for damage caused by disasters linked to climate change in California under the legislation presented on Monday by two Democratic legislators.
The proposal claims that the oil industry has intentionally deceived the public on the risks of fossil fuels climate change who have now intensified the storms and forest fire And caused billions of dollars to damage in California.
An aerial view shows the devastation left by palisade fires in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles, Monday, January 27, 2025.
AP photo / Jae C. Hong
These disasters have also led the state insurance market to a crisis where companies are increasing rates, limiting coverage or completely withdrawn from forest fire and other natural disasters, said supporters of the project of law.
Under state law, public service companies are responsible for damages if their equipment starts a forest fire. The same idea should apply to oil and gas companies, said Robert Herrell, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California, “for their massive contribution to these fires caused by climate change”.
The bill aims to mitigate the financial charges of the victims of these disasters and insurance companies by allowing them to pursue the petroleum industry to recover their losses. It would also allow insurance requirements to the fair plan, created by the state as a last resort for owners who could not find insurance, to do the same so that it does not become insolvent.
If it is approved, California would be the first state in the United States to authorize such prosecution, according to the bill of the bill, the Senator of the Scott Wiener State.
“We all pay for these disasters, but there is a stakeholder who does not pay: the fossil fuel industry, which makes the product that feeds climate change,” said Wiener at a press conference on Monday .
The new measure is necessarily confronted with significant reactions from oil and gas companies, which have faced a series of defeats in California in recent years when the most populous state in the country has started to modify the political priorities to fight against Climate change.
The Western States Petroleum Association, representing oil and gas companies in five states, has already pointed out that it would fight the bill. The president and chief executive officer, Catherine, Reheis-Boyd, said that state legislators use Los Angeles fires to “make the scapegoat”.
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“We need real solutions to help the victims following this tragedy, not in theater,” said Reheis-Boyd in a press release. “Voters are tired of this approach.”
Supporters have declared that the measure will also help stabilize the state insurance market by allowing insurers to recover some of the costs after a natural disaster of oil companies, which will prevent the increase in rates from being transmitted to the insured. The bill is supported by several environmental and consumer protection groups.
The legislation occurs while California begins the long recovery process from several fatal fires that have torn the sections of Los Angeles and burned more than 12,000 structures earlier this month. The fires have been named the most destructive in modern history in the city of Los Angeles and estimated as the most expensive natural disasters in American history. The legislators voted last week to spend $ 2.5 billion to help the region rebuild.
Dozens of American municipalities as well as eight states and Washington, DC, have continued oil and gas companies in recent years for their role in climate change, according to the Center for Climate Integrity. These proceedings are still heading before the courts, including one deposited by California more than a year ago against some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, saying that they have cheated on the risks of fossil fuels.
Scientists are massively agree that the world should considerably reduce the combustion of coal, oil and gas to limit global warming. Indeed, when fossil fuels are burned, carbon dioxide is formed and released, which represents more than three -quarters of all greenhouse gases with human causation.
California also strives to persuade insurers to continue doing business in the state by giving them more latitude to increase bonuses in exchange for more emitting policies in high -risk areas.
Citing the risk of balloon on natural climate disasters, seven of the 12 best insurance companies doing business in California in 2023 have taken a break or limited in the state.
The State now allows insurers to consider climate change when setting their prices and will also allow them to adopt reinsurance costs to California consumers.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press