Nationwide Insurance Crisis Sparks Senate Hearing, Focusing on Climate Change Financial Impacts

The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will take a deep dive into issues plaguing property insurance markets across the country and the impact changes, including from climate change, will impact consumers. Over the past year, several major insurance companies have limited or withdrawn coverage from states dealing with major natural disasters. Carly Fabian, insurance policy advocate with Public Citizen’s Climate Team, issued the following statement:

“Wildfires, hurricanes, thunderstorms, and flash floods have wreaked havoc across the U.S. this year, and after each disaster, homeowners have looked to their insurance providers to defray their losses. More and more often, those companies have packed up and moved on, leaving homeowners fewer and fewer options for insurance.

“The growing insurance crisis illustrates the vital importance of seeing climate change as a risk to the entire financial system. Year-after-year, disasters with multi-billion dollar price tags have struck around the globe.

“While much of today’s hearing will look at the impacts of the climate crisis on insurance, it will be incomplete without looking at the damage these companies have done by insuring and investing in fossil fuels. While these companies flee states at the highest risk for disaster, the insurance industry continues to prop up the companies directly causing climate change. The Senate should hold these companies accountable for profiting from a crisis they so willingly insure.”