‘Who’s not paying?’: Fire survivors back California bill to hold big oil accountable

As worsening climate-related disasters like fires and floods drive up insurance costs in California, state Sen. Scott Wiener and fire survivors are pushing for a bill that could give the state a way to force oil companies to pay for their role.

SB 982, a streamlined version of a bill that did not pass last year in the wake of the devastating Los Angeles-area fires, aims to blunt rising insurance costs by allowing the state attorney general to sue fossil fuel companies for damages connected to a climate disaster such as a wildfire, heat wave, drought or storm.

In a hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, supporters and opponents shared their thoughts on the bill with lawmakers.

Gayle Ali and her husband, Rasheed, said they were celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary when the Eaton Fire destroyed their house in Altadena, where they have lived for 30 years. The fire took her photo studio, her husband’s music studio, furniture, cars and family photos.

“A life erased,” she said.

They’re rebuilding with the help of their community and crowdfunding grants, but they don’t know if insurance will be available or how much it will cost in the future.

The Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures around Los Angeles.

(

Ryan Kellman

/

NPR

)

“What truly angers me is knowing that this wasn’t just bad luck,” Ali said. “I’ve since learned that back in the ’80s, years before we bought our home, Exxon’s own scientists warned the effects of their products would be catastrophic. They chose to hide the truth and spend millions on PR campaigns that are still running today. They keep profiting while putting our communities in danger.”

Oil companies such as ExxonMobil had their own internal research decades ago showing that burning fossil fuel would contribute to global warming, which intensifies extreme disasters like fires and floods. Publicly, however, they sought to undermine the science and cast doubt on the effects of human-caused climate change. Meanwhile, they have continued to rake in large profits year after year.

“While so much of our community has lost everything — I mean everything — and so many families can barely afford food, let alone rebuild, the five largest oil corporations made nearly $400 billion in profit over the last three years,” Ali said.

Yet right now, taxpayers and disaster survivors are the only ones paying for climate change, she said.

“We have to ask, who’s not paying?” Wiener said while speaking in support of his bill. “We know that the victims, the survivors, are paying in profound ways. Taxpayers are paying. And of course, policyholders are paying with much higher premiums. Who’s not paying? The answer is the fossil fuel industry, the corporations whose products fueled this crisis by fueling climate change.”

The bill’s current version is simplified from the proposal that Wiener and a colleague introduced last year, which would have allowed disaster survivors or insurance companies themselves to sue for damages.

“We heard the feedback [from last year],” Wiener said. “This bill is profoundly narrower.”

In the bill’s current version, the amount of damages sought in a civil action filed by the attorney general would be in proportion to a company’s market share. Any payouts would go to a newly created Attorney General Climate Disaster Fund and be distributed to policyholders; the California FAIR plan, which is the state’s insurer of last resort; the California Safe Homes grant program, which provides funding for fire-hardening work in high-risk areas; and to cover litigation costs.

Industry opponents say the bill would raise gas prices and kill jobs. A report released this month by the California Center for Jobs and the Economy details concerns ranging from higher premiums to less tax revenue.

Wiener rebutted these concerns, saying that gas is a global commodity, with prices set by worldwide market forces and not “the threat of hypothetical litigation,” and that the analyses ignore the benefits of payments to disaster survivors.

Louise Bedsworth, executive director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment, spoke in support of the bill and pointed out that by the end of the century, the average area burned by wildfire in the state is projected to increase by 77% if emissions continue to rise.