Extreme Weather Survivors urges California leaders to seek new accountability paths for rising wildfire costs
Survivor-led network urges state leaders to look at how fossil fuel companies can help fund recovery as California faces increasing wildfire liability costs
SACRAMENTO, CA — Extreme Weather Survivors (EWS), a nationwide network of Americans living through increasingly devastating wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and extreme heat, is calling on California leaders to hold oil and gas companies accountable for their role in the climate-fueled disasters leaving extreme weather survivors and everyday Californians to bear the growing costs of increasingly destructive wildfires.
A new report from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) calls for structural reforms to the state's wildfire liability system, noting that climate change, accumulated vegetation, and development in fire-prone areas have contributed to increasingly destructive wildfires. Climate change was also identified as a key driver of rising wildfire risk during a recent California Assembly wildfire safety hearing.
As California weighs how to respond to these mounting financial pressures, EWS is urging state leaders to look at additional sources of funding rather than shifting the burden onto survivors, ratepayers and insurance policyholders. A study conducted under SB 254 estimated that California's Wildfire Fund would need nearly $36 billion to remain solvent over the next 20 years, illustrating the scale of the damages and the need for solutions that bring more resources to communities impacted by extreme weather.
“California cannot continue acknowledging that climate change is driving increasingly destructive and expensive wildfires without addressing the industries that helped create this crisis,” said Yvette Martinez of Extreme Weather Survivors. “We understand that utilities and other essential industries are in a major financial crisis, but extreme weather survivors are already paying the price through lost homes, displacement, rising insurance costs, and years of financial hardship. The state must examine how to hold these companies accountable and ensure they contribute their fair share toward disaster recovery. Any meaningful solution must bring more resources to the table so survivors are equipped to fully recover, rather than leaving them to bear the brunt of a crisis they did not create.”
EWS is committed to ensuring that Californians harmed by these impacts are heard. Reporters covering this story can speak with members of our nationwide survivor network about recovery, barriers to federal assistance, and what this support means for communities still rebuilding.
