Californians Deserve Justice for Big Oil’s Lies Causing the Climate Affordability Crisis
Big Oil Knew The Dangers And Chose to Put us at Risk
✅ Documents uncovered last fall reveal California’s biggest oil companies learned the climate risks of burning fossil fuels in 1954.
✅ A CalTech study commissioned by Western States Petroleum Association, then called the Western Oil and Gas Association (WSPA), concluded: “The possible consequences of a changing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere with reference to climate may ultimately prove of considerable significance to civilization.”
✅ WSPA pioneered climate denial to bury the truth with lies and protect trillions of dollars in profits at our expense.
✅ Big Oil’s greed has exposed our homes, jobs, and lives to more frequent and destructive wildfires, extreme heat, drought, and floods caused by climate change.
Senate Bill 222: The Affordable Insurance and Climate Recovery Act
✅ The bill enables California victims of climate disasters and insurers to sue the oil companies that lied about the climate risks of their products and preserves our access to affordable insurance.
✅ See a detailed fact sheet of the bill here.
Insurance is in Crisis
✅ More frequent and destructive climate disasters are causing home insurance rates to skyrocket, with Californians paying $1,000 to $10,000 more each year. Calculate how much insurance rates have risen in your community here.
✅ As private insurers leave California or stop issuing new policies, pressure on the state’s insurer of last resort has boomed. As of December 2024, the FAIR Plan’s total exposure is $529 billion, reflecting a 217% increase since the end of FY 2021.
Climate Disasters Will be an Expensive Part of Our Future
✅ A study by ClaimGuide.org ranked California the state most at risk with $16 billion in costs each year. Of the nation’s five most at risk counties, four are in California – Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Alameda.
Keeping Our Costs Down as Los Angeles Rebuilds
✅ January wildfires leveled more than 16,000 homes and businesses in the most costly disaster in our nation’s history with initial estimates peg damages at over $250 billion.
✅ New research found the hot, dry, and windy conditions fueling these wildfires were 35 percent more likely because of climate change caused primarily burning fossil fuels.
✅ Working Californians and insurers are splitting a $1 billion bill to help the state’s insurer of last resort – the FAIR Plan – pay claims to rebuild Los Angeles after January wildfires
✅ The state’s largest insurer received provisional approval to hike rates 22% for homeowners, 15% for condo owners, and 38% for renters, and recovery is just getting started. If approved, the average State Farm policyholder in California will pay $845 more for homeowners insurance in 2025 than they did in 2023.
✅ As private insurers leave California or stop issuing new policies, pressure on the state’s insurer of last resort has boomed. As of December 2024, the FAIR Plan’s total exposure is $529 billion, reflecting a 217% increase since the end of FY 2021.
Make sure your state representative supports SB 222!
What We Do
California Environmental Voters is focused on building the political power to solve the climate crisis, advancing justice, and creating a roadmap for global action. We are California’s voice, statewide and nationally, for bold climate action. We elect and cultivate environmental champions, turn election victories into policy wins, hold our lawmakers accountable, and build political power to transform our political system and achieve climate justice. Learn more about what we do.
