California Dems Want To Sue Big Oil For Horrific LA Fires

Two California Democrats unveiled a bill Monday that they said would allow insurers and policyholders affected by the Los Angeles fires to sue major oil corporations for their alleged role in the disaster.

Democratic California State Sen. Scott Wiener and a host of other Democrats rolled out Senate Bill 222 on Monday, characterizing it as a means to make oil companies atone for the fires and stabilize California’s faltering insurance market. This, as residents pick up the pieces from the devastation. Weiner and Pérez say that oil companies bear responsibility for the fires because of their supposed role in climate change. This, even though critics say a litany of policy decisions and failures appear to have much more directly fanned the flames, as evidenced by things like malfunctioning fire hydrants.

“Californians shouldn’t be the only ones to pay the costs of devastating climate disasters. From last year’s floods to the fires in LA, we know that the fossil fuel industry bears ultimate responsibility for fueling these disasters,” Wiener said in a post to X, addressing the new legislation. “The fossil fuel companies knew this was going to happen. They had the studies decades ago, suppressed them & obstructed policy changes to transition away from fossil fuels & toward clean energy.”

The new bill would also require California’s state-run insurer of last resort, known as the FAIR Plan, to seek damages from energy companies for policyholders who were affected by the major fires, Wiener said in his post on X. FAIR, though, may not have enough cash on hand to cover the massive damages caused by the Los Angeles fires, according to Gerald Glombicki, a senior director for Fitch Ratings.

While the specific cause of the fires is not yet known, evidence is beginning to suggest that electrical equipment may have sparked the flames, according to The New York Times.

State and municipal officials have also been criticized for focusing too much on diversity initiatives and not enough on emergency preparedness. Officials reportedly neglected to fix problematic water infrastructure in the Pacific Palisades area despite knowing it was an issue. A major reservoir sat empty for months awaiting repairs before the blazes broke out.

Notably, an activist group called California Environmental Voters initially pitched the bill to Wiener’s staff, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Other green groups — Extreme Weather Survivors and the Center for Climate Integrity — also reportedly worked on the bill.

The offices of Wiener and Pérez did not respond immediately to a request for comment.