Democrats are focusing more and more on kitchen-table budgets when they talk about climate change. Case in point: Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted the home insurance crisis when asked about her climate plan at Tuesday’s debate. “You ask anyone who lives in a state who has experienced these extreme weather occurrences, who now is either being denied home insurance or is being jacked up,” Harris said, after blasting former President Donald Trump for calling climate change a “hoax.” Rate hikes are seldom the first thing mentioned when politicians and scientists talk about climate change, writes Thomas Frank. But as the enormous cost of climate-fueled disasters is increasingly borne by individual property owners and taxpayers, devastating insurance markets from Florida to California, Democrats are reinforcing the idea that global warming hurts families’ bottom lines. For example, climate groups launched a $55 million campaign last month to support Harris’ presidential bid with ads that don’t mention climate change — and instead tout clean energy jobs and slam oil industry profits. Harris’ mention of home insurance comes as insurers sharply raise rates and stop covering properties in areas vulnerable to wildfires or overpowering winds. That has left millions of people scrambling to find affordable coverage for their homes — and their cars. “Insurance seems to be evolving into a measuring stick for how climate risk is affecting day-to-day life,’’ industry expert Sridhar Manyem told Tom. Hundreds of thousands of people in California, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas have flocked in recent years to state-run insurance programs, which often charge more and pass on massive disaster bills to taxpayers. In Florida, 1.25 million people now buy expensive coverage through a state-chartered insurer of last resort, which has become the largest underwriter in the state. Insurance “is the first process by which the climate debt we’ve built up over the past half-century is starting to be realized by homeowners,” Jeremy Porter, with the climate modeling and research firm the First Street Foundation, told Tom. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment