SACRAMENTO, California — State Sen. Scott Wiener agreed to weaken his proposal to recoup rising property insurance costs due to climate change from oil and gas companies Tuesday night to get it past a key committee in the state Legislature.
What happened: The state Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9 to 2 to advance SB 982 after state Sen. Tom Umberg (D), the committee’s chair, announced a deal with Wiener to make major changes to the proposal.
The bill would allow the California attorney general to sue oil and gas companies to recoup rising costs of property insurance due to climate-fueled disasters like wildfires. Tuesday night’s deal changes the date when oil and gas companies would begin to accrue liability for climate-fueled disasters from 2016 to 2032, and builds in a credit system so that oil and gas companies could reduce their overall liability if they show they’ve reduced their emissions by spending money on technologies including wind, solar, carbon capture and storage.
“I want to incentivize the creation of additional jobs here in California,” Umberg said during the hearing. “I want to incentivize the investment in infrastructure that helps to reduce emissions.”
