SACRAMENTO, CA — Survivors of the Los Angeles fires and San Diego floods; labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta; and consumer advocates joined Senator Scott Wiener outside the Capitol to announce SB 982, the Affordable Insurance and Recovery Act (AIR Act). This new legislation is designed to tackle California’s growing home insurance affordability crisis. With rising rates and non-renewals from private insurers forcing many Californians into the state’s insurer of last resort, SB 982 is a critical step to improve affordability and stabilize the insurance market.
The AIR Act would create a new pathway to lower insurance premium hikes by authorizing the Attorney General to take multi-billion dollar multinational oil and gas corporations to court for increases related to climate change-fueled extreme weather disasters, like fires and flooding. 92% of California voters believe reducing home insurance costs and ensuring availability of home insurance policies are “somewhat or very important” (62% “very important”). Two-thirds of California voters agree that billion dollar corporations should offset climate driven increases of home insurance to help save money for policyholders and taxpayers. Over 4,500 Californians have already signed on to a petition calling on lawmakers to intervene with a solution to rising insurance costs.
“With the cost of home insurance shooting through the roof and more and more families getting rejected by private insurers, we have to do everything we can to stabilize the market and boost affordability,” said Senator Wiener. “The AIR Act takes an innovative approach to this problem by shifting the cost of wildfires and other climate-driven disasters from the survivors who are suffering to the fossil fuel giants most responsible. No one should be pushed out of their home by insurance costs, and the AIR Act will take an important step to ensuring they won’t be.”
The bill is sponsored by Extreme Weather Survivors, California Environmental Voters, and the Center for Climate Integrity, who are committed to ensuring that increasing costs of these disasters are not borne only by California property owners and renters. Right now the cost of premium spikes that typically occur in the immediate aftermath of extreme weather events like the 2025 Los Angeles Fires–which totaled more than $52 billion in losses–land solely on insurance policy holders like homeowners and small business owners. California constituents, community leaders and consumer advocates argue that fossil fuel companies should help pay for premium spikes caused by extreme weather events — not only policyholders — due to the active role of fossil fuels in climate change that makes extreme weather disasters more frequent.
“Californians are facing an insurance affordability crisis fueled by extreme weather disasters, and doing nothing is no longer an option. This bill is about shifting the burden off families, homeowners, and taxpayers, and placing it where it belongs: on the corporate polluters that knowingly caused this damage,” said Mary Creasman, Chief Executive Officer, EnviroVoters. “We can protect communities, stabilize the insurance market, and hold polluters accountable at the same time.”
Independent economic modeling shows that a successful lawsuit regarding climate change-driven insurance premium hikes over the past 10 years could have resulted in:
– $62 billion in compensation for California homeowners & businesses
– $3,800 in average net benefits per household (distributed to 12.7 million insured households statewide)
– Up to 340,000 jobs created in California
An unstable insurance market puts everyday Californians in an impossible financial situation. Homeowners struggle to meet rising premium costs, renters suffer from costs passed down by landlords who are forced to pay more for insurance, and small business owners can’t keep up with rates for commercial properties. This creates a spiraling economic threat, impacting real estate markets and regional economies across the state.
Reliance on the FAIR Plan, California’s insurer of last resort, is growing exponentially as private insurance becomes increasingly costly or unattainable. The FAIR Plan currently insures nearly $700 billion in property, growing 317% since 2021. Even with insurance of last resort, rates are typically high and offer poor coverage. As the FAIR Plan continues to face solvency problems, taxpayers could find themselves on the hook without additional financial resources to support the program from legislation like the AIR Act.
Larger and more frequent extreme weather events – including the 2025 Los Angeles fires, will continue to drive up insurance costs while those most responsible for the steep frequency and severity of extreme weather disasters pay nothing. Decades of scientific evidence–including studies by oil and gas corporations–has found that the burning of fossil fuels plays an active role in climate change that fuels increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather. Records show large oil and gas corporations knowingly misled the public about climate change for decades and these corporations do not currently cover any climate-driven cost increases. The AIR Act will help stabilize the insurance market and ensure homeowners have access to affordable insurance by having the largest multi-billion dollar oil and gas corporations pay for a reasonable portion of the rising costs they caused.
Professional photographs and video from the press conference available on request.
Additional Quotes
“After the floods, my life was turned upside down overnight. Insurance didn’t cover everything, and the costs didn’t stop when the water receded — for survivors, there is no pause or reset. We’re still rebuilding, still paying, still trying to stay rooted,” said Marisa Aguayo, San Diego flood survivor. “It’s frustrating to be told this is the ‘new normal’ while the corporations that fueled this crisis walk away without paying anything. This bill is about making sure everyday people aren’t left holding the bag for disasters we didn’t cause.”
“After the fire, my home in the burn scar was extremely contaminated by toxic smoke and debris and deemed not habitable,” said Elisa Jacobs Nixon, Altadena fire survivor. “This insurance affordability bill is critical because it starts to shift the burden off of survivors and holds to account the billion-dollar businesses responsible for driving these disasters in the first place, so disaster survivors like me aren’t left paying for a crisis we didn’t cause.”
“We lost our Altadena home of more than 30 years in the fires. Even with insurance, our coverage fell far short of what it will take to rebuild, and we were forced to relive the loss by itemizing everything we owned. Insurance is becoming unaffordable and inadequate just when families need it most,” said Gayle and Rasheed Ali, Altadena fire survivors. “This bill matters because it recognizes that everyday Californians shouldn’t be stuck paying higher premiums, losing coverage, or relying on GoFundMe while these enormous corporations walk away from the damage they caused with no accountability.”
“California’s insurance crisis is in large part the predictable cost of extreme weather disasters driven by fossil fuel pollution. As oil and gas companies cost shift billions in damage they significantly helped create, families pay through higher premiums, fewer options, aggressive claim denials, being dumped on the insurer of last resort or no coverage at all,” said Robert Herell, Executive Director, Consumer Federation of California. “Giving California the authority to recover disaster costs from the companies causing the harm is basic economic accountability and smart risk management for taxpayers.”
“Our state is already living through the impacts of climate change, from wildfires to flooding, and the costs too often fall on everyday families”, said Senator Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D. (D-San Diego). “SB 982 is a critical step toward accountability, making sure that those who contribute most to climate disasters are held responsible for the harm they cause.”
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CONTACT:
Erika Guzman Cornejo
(310) 755-1615
erika@envirovoters.org
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ABOUT CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL VOTERS
California Environmental Voters (EnviroVoters) believes the climate crisis is here and this moment requires transformative change. California has the policy solutions to stop climate change but lacks the political will to do it at the rate and scale that’s necessary. EnviroVoters exists to build the political power to solve the climate crisis, advance justice, and create a roadmap for global action. We organize voters, elect and train candidates, and hold lawmakers accountable for bold policy change. We won’t stop until we have resilient, healthy, thriving communities, and a democracy and economy that is just and sustainable for all. Join us at www.envirovoters.org and on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X. See more press releases.
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Affordable Insurance Now is a campaign to protect California’s homeowners, renters, and business owners from skyrocketing insurance costs. Rapidly increasing disasters are causing premiums to spike and this campaign supports new legislation that will stabilize the insurance market and help those who are impacted the most. Member groups include bill sponsors Extreme Weather Survivors, California Environmental Voters, the Center for Climate Integrity, and others.
