Utilities, Insurers, Oil Companies Must Pay Their Fair Share, Groups Say As CEA Finalizes Study Addressing Who Pays for Catastrophes, Says Consumer Watchdog

LOS ANGELES, March 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Earthquake Authority today moved one step closer to submitting a report to the Legislature and Governor on who should pay the costs of catastrophic weather events. In comments, Consumer Watchdog laid out solutions to hold the corporations fueling climate change, causing wildfires and withholding insurance benefits responsible for their fair share of the costs of extreme weather. Several of these ideas have been introduced as legislation this year.

Nearly nine in ten Californians are worried they will not be able to get, or afford, insurance. 82% of voters are concerned about the high cost of their electricity bills. At the same time, the insurance, utility and fossil fuel industries are enjoying huge profits on the backs of consumers. The report should focus on making these companies pay their fair share, said Consumer Watchdog, and not take more out of the pockets of wildfire survivors or every Californian who must buy electricity and insurance.

"Californians who can least afford it are paying for weather disasters in the form of rising bills, loss of coverage, and delay or denial of insurance benefits they are owed," said Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog. "The public is paying enough for worsening weather. It's time to stop letting the oil, utility and insurance corporations off the hook for their fair share of the costs of disaster prevention and recovery."

The draft report is in response to last year's Senate Bill 254 which extended the Wildfire Fund and charged the California Earthquake Authority with producing a report on future catastrophe resiliency and costs. The Wildfire Fund relieves utilities for liability for wildfires they cause. SB 254 replenished it even as it became clear that Southern California Edison's negligence was likely responsible for causing the Eaton Fire. 

"Last fall, state leaders gave Edison sweeping shareholder protections and massive rate hikes, saying they were necessary to prevent bankruptcy. As a result, profits jumped from under $1 billion to over $4 billion, while shareholder dividends increased," said Joy Chen, Executive Director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.

"Meanwhile, survivors are draining retirement savings, maxing out credit cards, and facing growing housing instability and homelessness. This is not shared risk. It is a direct wealth transfer from displaced families to Edison shareholders. The rule should be simple: You break it, you fix it. Not you break it and your victims pay. Edison now has the financial capacity to prevent mass homelessness, fully compensate survivors, and move the Eaton Fire recovery forward without delay." 

Consumer Watchdog shared recommendations with the CEA and authors of the report on how to make California more resilient to climate-driven weather disasters and more equitably share the costs. They include:

• Guaranteed insurance coverage for fire-safe homes.
• Making fossil fuel companies contribute to climate resilience and recovery.
• Strengthening insurance policyholder protections so insurers pay what they contractually owe survivors.
• Preserving the legal rights of survivors to hold utilities whose negligence causes wildfires fully accountable.
• Requiring utility shareholders, not the Wildfire Fund, to pay if the utility did not meet the highest standard of care.
• And imposing affordability measures on the investor-owned utilities such as limiting return on capital costs, which has the potential to save $6 billion per year.

Download Consumer Watchdog's comments here. 

Several bills already introduced this year address these priorities including: SB 1076 (Pérez) the Coverage for Fire-Safe Homes Act; SB 982 (Wiener) the Affordable Insurance and Recovery Act; and SB 878 and 877 (Pérez) the Insurance Payment Accountability and Fair Claims Practices and Transparency Acts. Multiple bills on utility accountability are also in the works. 

In today's presentation by the CEA study team, one area of agreement emerged: California must do more to incentivize wildfire mitigation. Yet homeowners whose meet the highest fire-safety standards are still arbitrarily denied insurance coverage, nonrenewed, or face premium hikes that do not reflect their risk reduction efforts. This has destabilized California's homeowners insurance market and real estate sales have suffered in turn, said the group.

"Requiring insurance companies to cover Californians who make their homes fire-safe is the number one action the state can take to increase resilience in our neighborhoods, reduce costs and expand Californians' access to insurance," wrote Consumer Watchdog. 

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog