California Tells Insurers to Reward Wildfire-Resilient Homes

Wildfire-savvy homeowners in California soon will pay lower insurance rates for taking steps to protect their properties from infernos made worse by climate change.

That is among the intended impacts of a California regulation finalized yesterday that requires insurance companies to provide residents and businesses with a discount if they harden their homes against wildfires.

The regulation -- which the California Department of Insurance says is the first of its kind -- has several key goals.

They include: incentivizing wildfire adaptation; mitigating rising insurance rates in fire-prone areas; and providing consumers with more insight into and control over how insurers are responding to climate risk in local communities.

‘Protecting Californians from deadly wildfires means everyone doing their part, including insurance companies, by rewarding consumers for being safer from wildfires,’ Ricardo Lara, the California insurance commissioner, said in a statement.