Gas prices, wildfires, insurance, the weather – what everyone said last night

Wildfires and insurance — issues plagued by climate change — and the price of gas, took center stage in the California governor’s debate Tuesday night.

Here are some descriptive statements from the candidates, from stage left:

Tony Thurmond

The Democratic State Superintendent of Public Instruction addressed the state’s wildfire insurance crisis, where private insurance companies are dropping policies as climate change fuels more catastrophic fires. The state has allowed insurance companies to raise premiums to write more policies, but so far its backup FAIR program, which aims to provide coverage where other companies don’t, continues to grow.

Thurmond has said he would withhold tax credits, subsidies and incentives for unaffiliated insurers, although the president and other candidates have raised questions about the legality of the strategy.

“Surely the governor can work with the Insurance Commissioner to say that rates should not be raised unless the insurance industry actually writes policies. They have failed California in our greatest need. They have taken money from premiums and when people need help rebuilding their homes, they say, ‘oops, we’re not going to help you.’ Then they were promoted. I’m sorry where I’m coming from, if you do a bad job you don’t get promoted.”

Chad Bianco

The Republican Riverside County Sheriff said insurers are not leaving California because of climate change, but because the state has failed to pass and enforce vegetation management and protected area policies that would reduce wildfire risk.

“It wasn’t global warming, stop believing that.” It was a failed environmental policy that didn’t allow fire departments to block the protected area around our homes or clear the brush that 30 years had built up on our mountains and hills away from the city. [Insurers] we said directly that we would lose the city, and our governor said ‘we don’t care.’ So the insurance companies left.”

Inadequate brush removal has contributed to other fires in the state, though not what Los Angeles fire officials are saying.

Tom Steyer

The Democratic billionaire hedge fund founder, who is positioning himself as a climate candidate in the race, has voiced his push to make oil companies pay for the damages caused by climate change, including higher insurance rates and homes lost to wildfires.

“Environmentally, I have three real laws. Number one is polluters pay. It’s very important that if people are going to pollute and harm the environment and harm their neighbors, they pay. Second, we have to include environmental justice in all environmental laws. The third is that we need to start using all the clean energy things that are cheap now and put us back on the planet.

“There is one person that companies are following, including Big Oil, who are spending millions of dollars to stop me.” The power companies, PG&E, millions of dollars to stop me, because I’m a person on this stage that changes.”

Steve Hilton

The former Republican Fox News spokesman said insurers should be allowed to raise rates based on wildfire risk. He also advocated “modern forest management,” removing fuel from forests, as a way to prevent wildfires, reduce carbon emissions from fires, and revitalize the state’s pharmaceutical industry.

“We can create jobs and opportunity in rural California and reduce carbon emissions in the process, because we won’t have massive wildfires.”

Asked if he supported the change in electrification, he promoted natural gas: “Yes, but let’s be rational about electricity. Right now, we have a lot of electric power stations that are operating at 10 to 15% of their capacity, although we have a lot of natural gas in California that we could use to generate reliable and low cost electricity. businesses.”

According to the US Energy Information Administration, California’s natural gas production provides less than one-tenth of the state’s consumption.

Xavier Becerra

The former Health and Human Services Secretary said he would call a state of emergency as governor to require wildfire insurers to freeze rates and come to the table.

“This problem of not being able to pay the costs affects all families, and we have to act like this is the glass window … Taxpayers have to understand what their risk is, to understand why they are going to pay what they are going to pay for their home insurance. But the insurance company has to be open and transparent about how they price their policies so that people can afford them.”

President Julie Watts noted that California home insurance rates are below the national average and questioned the legitimacy of the freeze.

Katie Porter

The former Orange County Democratic Congressman was asked if California should keep its filters. Two of them have closed in the past year, reducing the state’s refining capacity by 20 percent and causing California to become more dependent on imports.

He said the state should keep the remaining refineries open, but also quickly ramp up green energy to meet the state’s growing electricity demand: “Right now we need to keep all of our energy sources online. That’s the reality we’re in. … Right now those refineries, they’re working, they’re working, they’re creating good jobs. Let’s keep them there, clean those people who really work …. we live in Kern County and we’re dealing with terrible pollution and a low standard of living.” it takes us out of that.

He also supported the idea of ​​having government dollars cover insurance for insurers, known as reinsurance.

Matt Mahan

The Democratic mayor of San Jose has called for an end to the state’s 61 cent per-gallon gas tax, which is used to fund road, bridge, and public transportation repairs. The state is looking at a $216.4 billion deficit over the next decade due to increased fuel economy and electric vehicles. Some Democratic candidates support tax retention; Mahan instead proposed a lower fee for all vehicles.

He said: “I’m the only candidate in this field who has promised to suspend and replace the gas tax. It’s the best tax in California. Working people, rural people, spend three times more on our roads than wealthy EV owners.”

On the wildfire insurance crisis he said: “Sacramento government has made so many restrictions, including taking more than a year to approve any rate changes, prohibiting insurance companies from using weather data to predict future costs, that they have stopped writing new policies. fires.”

Antonio Villaraigosa

The former Democratic mayor of LA expressed his concern about the readiness of the state’s infrastructure to support the transition to electric vehicles.

“We need all of the above strategies that understand that we have to move from oil and gas to renewables. But here’s an example: the 2035 mandate [to ban gas-powered car sales]. We have built 167,000 charging stations in the last 10 years. We need 2 million more to reach that mandate, and if we build it, we don’t have a grid. So we should build a grid instead of arguing whether we need an all-above policy or not.”