SACRAMENTO, California — California’s Insurance Department and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, are teaming up to research how to create what would be the nation’s first public wildfire catastrophe model to identify homes and neighborhoods at highest risk.
The announcement Tuesday comes as state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara advances a suite of new regulations aimed at enticing property insurers back to the state after record losses to wildfire. He’s faced criticism by consumer advocates over allowing insurers to keep their models secret.
“A public model will be a benchmark for my Department to help keep insurance rates fair and accurate, a reliable source of data for local governments increasing wildfire safety, and a rich educational and career-building opportunity for students and researchers,” said Lara in a press release.
The heart of Lara’s proposed new rules would allow insurers for the first time to use so-called catastrophe models that factor in climate change to set their rates instead of relying only on historic data — a move that will likely increase rates. In exchange, the Insurance Department would require the companies to increase the share of policies they write in fire-prone areas.
