The Brief

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said today he will grant State Farm’s request to raise home insurance premiums by 22% on average if the company agrees to certain conditions — and wins approval at a public rate hearing next month.

Lara’s conditions are that State Farm, the state’s biggest provider of homeowners insurance, commit to pause canceling and not renewing policies through the end of this year. He also is asking that its parent company, State Farm Mutual, give or loan the California entity, State Farm General, $500 million to help boost its finances. In addition, State Farm must prove its need for the interim rate increases at a hearing April 8, where it must present updated and more detailed data.

Lara said he had to “make an unprecedented decision in the short term.”

“I expect both State Farm and its parent company to meet their responsibilities and not shift the burden entirely onto their customers,” Lara wrote. “The facts will be revealed in an open, transparent hearing.”

Lara has been trying to reform the state’s insurance market as providers like State Farm have canceled policies or paused writing new ones, saying they have been unable to charge premiums that match increased wildfire risks.

State Farm asked for “emergency” interim rate increases after fires burned through parts of Los Angeles County in January, saying it expects more than $7 billion in claims from the deadly blazes, a drastically reduced surplus and a potential cut to its credit rating, which could affect its ability to meet mortgage lenders’ insurance requirements. The company, which insures nearly 3 million property owners in the state, including more than 1 million homeowners, had been waiting for a decision on rate hikes it requested last summer, which the Insurance Department had not approved after months of discussions, so it sought special approval for interim rate increases.

Under California law, insurance companies that request rate increases of 7% or more must go through a rate hearing if there are objections by intervenors, as there are in the case of State Farm’s requests. Rate hearings are rare; the last one was in 2015 and also involved State Farm.

If State Farm is successful at proving its need for rate hikes at next month’s hearing, its interim rates will climb on June 1 an average 22% for homeowners, 15% for renters and condos, and 38% for rental dwellings. The company had asked for the rates to become effective May 1.

Those increases would follow an average 20% premium rate hike State Farm customers saw just last year.

State Farm would still have to go through a rate hearing for its summer rate requests. Department spokesperson Michael Soller said only that that hearing would occur later this year.

An administrative law judge will preside over the hearing for the interim rate request at the department’s Oakland office, and is expected to provide a proposed decision to the commissioner within 10 days, according to Lara’s order.

Lara’s decision came about two weeks after he called an in-person meeting between his department, State Farm executives and Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group that filed a challenge against the insurer’s rate requests. The same parties also met virtually Tuesday, during which the commissioner previewed his decision.

State Farm General Chief Executive Dan Krause said at the meeting this week that State Farm General was willing to consider giving its California arm a capital infusion of at least $250 million if the interim rate requests were approved, according to the meeting transcript.

Representatives for State Farm and Consumer Watchdog did not immediately return a request for comment.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Four million acres of California’s wildest backcountry could soon be opened to paving roads and logging.

The Trump administration announced last week that it’s pushing forward with a proposal to scrap a 2001 rule that blocks logging, road building and other construction in parts of national forests. The administration argues repealing the so-called “roadless rule” is key to managing vegetation to better prevent wildfires on public lands.

Environmental advocates and other groups worry rescinding the rule would harm pristine habitat and the wildlife it supports, and open up more public land to industrial activities and human access that can cause more wildfires.

And locals are worried about losing access to some of the last protected natural lands in the region.

“What we're dealing with here in the roadless rule is the protection of the backcountry,” said David Browning, president of the Orange County Mountain Bike Association, “where you can actually go out and be having an experience where you don't hear traffic, where you don't see buildings, where you actually remember what it was like before all of us got here.”

In Southern California, large swaths of the Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland national forests would lose protections.

Browning, who spoke with All Things Considered host Julia Paskin on Monday, said he’s particularly concerned about the Santa Ana Mountains, where much of Orange County’s backcountry biking trails exist within a roadless area that could be opened to construction.

“Our mission is to protect and expand trail access, and so our entire agenda is to make sure that in a highly populated county, like Orange, that we have available the outdoors to be able to go and enjoy,” he said.

Browning takes issue with the wildfire argument — he pointed to the 2024 Airport Fire, which was sparked when heavy equipment operated by Orange County employees struck a rock. They were moving large boulders that day to, in part, block vehicles from getting into a dry brush area and potentially starting a fire. Browning said the “roadless rule” prevents such access that could increase the risk of fire. A recent peer-reviewed study supports that, finding that although roads are important for managing a fire once it ignites, they’re also more likely to be a place where a fire starts.

Though addressing wildfires and protecting public lands have become heavily politicized under the Trump administration, Browning thinks most locals probably aren’t as divided.

“ I don't think this is a party issue,” he said. “We want to hold onto the outdoors and protect them as best we can.”

There unfortunately isn’t much respite in sight for heat-weary Southern Californians.

Forecasters say this week’s heat wave is likely to be the hottest so far this summer. Extreme heat warnings will be in effect from the National Weather Service for almost the entire region from Tuesday morning through Friday evening.

Temperatures will peak between Tuesday and Thursday.

Highs in downtown Los Angeles are expected to reach around 100 degrees, and the warmest inland valleys will get up to 112. L.A. County beaches will hit the high 80s.

Forecasters have also issued Red Flag Warnings for the interior mountains and foothills of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Gusty winds and low humidity at higher elevations mean fires could spark and spread quickly.

At lower elevations, humidity continues to make the heat feel more sweltering and make it harder to cool down, especially at night. Nighttime temperatures will only get down to the 70s in most places, including along the coast.

A slight cooldown is expected this weekend, though forecasters say temperatures will stay above normal into next week.

The extreme heat this week poses an especially high risk of heat-related illness for people over 65, young children, people who work or spend a lot of time outside and those without access to air conditioning.

Driving the heat

Several factors are behind this week’s heat wave, many of which have also been behind the rest of this summer’s consistently hot weather.

The main driver is a high pressure air system hovering over the southwestern U.S., trapping warm air, compressing it and warming it further, and blocking cooler air from entering the region.

Offshore winds are also pushing warm inland air toward the coast, preventing cooler onshore winds from blowing inland.

“That blocks our natural air conditioning off the ocean from coming in as early as it normally does,” said Weather Service meteorologist Mike Wofford. “So as long as that cool air stays offshore, it heats up on land.”

The offshore winds are not strong enough, however, to significantly dry out the air in the L.A. Basin and cut down on the humidity.

“That's probably going to be around for the whole summer because you’ve got all this warm ocean water that's feeding into that,” Wofford said.

Warmer seawater evaporates faster, adding to moisture in the air and increasing humidity across the region, especially along the coasts.

Air quality warnings

Along with the heat this week, many Southern Californians also have smog to worry about.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued an ozone advisory on Monday for inland areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties, much of Riverside County and parts of San Bernardino County. It will remain in effect through Friday evening.

The multi-day smog event is in part driven by the heatwave.

Officials say ozone pollution may reach unhealthy levels or higher in the Santa Clarita Valley, parts of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino valleys, and portions of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Under unhealthy levels, it’s possible for anyone to experience adverse health effects like difficulty breathing and throat irritation. Sensitive populations could experience more serious effects.

Levels are expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups in the San Fernando Valley, Perris Valley, Mission Viejo, Lake Elsinore, Corona, Hemet, Riverside and Pasadena.

Officials advise certain vulnerable groups — including people with heart or lung disease, those with asthma, pregnant women, children and people over 65 — to limit their time outdoors.

Officials predict that ozone levels will be lower along the coast.