Roughly three dozen pieces of California legislation are directly related to wildfire, and while those bills should hold much interest for the insurance community, there are other bills making their rounds that should draw a great deal of concern.
So far 2,369 bills have been introduced in state Legislature this year, according to John Norwood of Norwood Associates, an industry lobbyist who also represents the California Insurance Wholesalers Association.
Norwood said he’s by encouraged by all the attention California’s wildfires are getting.
“Rates and availability are not going to change until the reinsurance market thinks California has reduced the risk of wildfire,” Norwood said.
Several of those bills include mitigation incentives, penalties for failure to prevent fires, funding for fire prevention and firefighting, and a bill to prohibit cancellations in high wildfire risk areas.