Arizona legislators debate a bill that would protect public services from forest fires, a decision that would probably send shock waves in the insurance sector.
The bill would make proof more difficult that public services are to be blamed for forest fires launched by defective or poorly maintained equipment while limiting damage. In exchange for reduced responsibility, public services should file plans every two years detailing the measures they take to limit the risk of forest fires.
The invoice, as it is currently written, does not really require public services to stick to these plans. If a public service does not follow its plans or does not neglect its equipment, it is always protected from complaints.
The insurance sector was in shock from forest fires, and the bill could have the involuntary effect of moving the burden of forest fire fire complaints to the insurers of the owners.
“There is no free lunch in this area,” Marcus Osborn, a lobbyist from the insurance company, said During a public hearing on the bill. “You will either pay in higher insurance premiums, or you will pay in public service costs.”
Some owners in Arizona have Given their triple prices This year, while others have lowered their coverage.
This is largely the result of insurance companies that try to cover their losses while complaints from forest fires accumulate. Hippo, an insurance startup that has become public via Spac in 2021, reported $ 42 million in losses Following the recent Forest Fire of Los Angeles. Lemonade, another startup that went public In 2020, expects to lose $ 45 million of the same disaster.
The risks made up of forest fires have given other startups an opening. Kettle, for example, sells reinsurance and models of possible results on forest fires to help other companies support their forest risk. However, the global trend has been towards higher costs for owners.
The Arizona bill is being mentioned as states in the United States with the threat – and the fallout – forest fires aggravated by climate change and more than a century of fire suppression.
For decades, fires in the United States have been swept away as quickly as possible. Before, low-intensity fires would take place in the sub-settlement, killing weak charges and transforming the litter of dry leafy leaves that fertilized the soil. But as the fires were removed, the subsets thickened with a brush and years of litter of accumulated leaves.
These conditions have created what forest fire experts call “scale fuels”, which help carry fires of low forest intensity in the canopy, where they can become catastrophic.
In this context, climate change has aggravated the risk of high intensity canopy fires. The rise in temperatures exacerbated droughts, according to a study Posted in November, increasing evaporation. In other words, small precipitation falls to the ground is found more quickly in the atmosphere than before, leading to even drier conditions.
Warm winters have also been to blame. The drop in the snowpack leads to drier spring conditions and insects whose populations were generally maintained by bitter cold temperatures. For example, warmer temperatures and voracious beetles killed more than 100 million trees In California between 2014 and 2017. These dead trees have become an ideal fuel that has led forest fires over the following years.
