Arizona offers a law that would transfer the responsibility of a fire from utility to insurers

Arizona legislators are discussing a bill that will protect communal services from fire -related courts, a move that is likely to send shock waves through the insurance industry.

The bill will make it difficult to prove that utilities are guilty of wild fires started by defective or poorly maintained equipment, while limiting damage. In exchange for reduced liability, utilities will have to submit plans every two years, describing in detail the steps they take to limit the risk of fires.

The bill, as it is currently written, does not really require utilities to adhere to these plans. If a program does not follow its plans or is negligent in maintaining its equipment, it is still protected from claims.

The insurance industry is trying from fires and the bill can have an unforeseen effect of displacement of the burden of claims for fire from utility services on housing owners insurers.

“There is no free lunch in this,” Marcus Osborne, lobbyist of the insurance company, said at a public hearing on the bill. “Either you will pay in higher insurance premiums, or you will pay higher costs for utilities.”

Some homeowners in Arizona have Saw their rates triple This year, while others have dropped out of their coverage.

This is largely the result of insurance companies trying to achieve their losses as fire claims are arranged. HIPPO, an insurance startup that became public through SPAC in 2021, reports $ 42 million lost As a result of the latest fires in Los Angeles. Lemonade, another start that became publicly available In 2020 he expects to lose $ 45 million from the same disaster.

The complex risks of fires gave way to other start -ups. For example, the kettle sells reinsurance and models possible fire results to help other companies divert the risk of wild fire. However, the overall trend is higher costs for homeowners.

The Arizona Bill is seasoned as countries in the Western American grip with the threat – and the fall – of fires worsened by climate change and over a century of fire.

For decades, fires in the United States have been stamped as quickly as possible. Previously, low -intensity fires would compete through the dungeon, killing weak saplings and turning the dry leaves into a rich ash that fertilized the soil. But as the fires were suppressed, the underground thickened with a brush and years of accumulated leaf waste.

These conditions have created what Wildfire experts call the “preparation of the ladder” that help to carry low -intensity fires from the canopy, where they can become catastrophic.

Against this background, climate change complicates the risk of high -intensity canopy fires. Increased temperatures have exacerbated drought according to exploration Posted in November, by increasing evaporation. In other words, what a little rainfall falls to the ground ends back into the atmosphere faster than before, leading to even more dry conditions.

The warmer winters were also guilty. The less snow package leads to more dry spring conditions, and the insects, whose populations are usually kept under control of bitter cold temperatures, flourish. For example, more heating temperatures and insatiable pine beetles killed more than 100 million trees In California, between 2014 and 2017, these dead trees turned into perfect fuel, which drove fires in the coming years.