Background
Climate change is driving an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events globally and in California, including heatwaves, droughts, flooding, and a significant increase in the incidence and severity of catastrophic wildfires. These extreme weather events impose profound risks to public health, natural resources, infrastructure, and California’s economy.
To address this emerging climate-fueled economic crisis, California must evaluate new models to equitably socialize risk that balance the state’s goals of providing Californians with safe, affordable, and reliable energy, maintaining progress toward the state’s climate goals, stabilizing the insurance markets to protect both insurance access and affordability, mitigating the incidence of and harm from wildfires and other disasters, and providing swift and fair compensation to those harmed.
Senate Bill 254
The California Legislature passed and Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB254, which requires a comprehensive assessment to analyze and develop long-term reforms that protect access to insurance, reduce litigation costs, provide fair and expeditious compensation to claimants, support wildfire mitigation, safety, and community resilience, and ensure large electrical corporations are accountable for safety and also have the financial health to attract low-cost capital on behalf of ratepayers.
Next Steps
The California Earthquake Authority (CEA), in its capacity as Administrator of the California Wildfire Fund will oversee the preparation of the assessment (study) and seeks input from the stakeholder community. Planning and logistics have begun, and CEA is required to deliver a report on the study to the Legislature and Governor by April 1, 2026. Upon completion and delivery, the report on the natural catastrophe resiliency study will be published on this page.
We look to relevant stakeholders and subject matter experts as important contributors to the study. To support this effort, please email us your input to SB254CWF@calquake.com.
Additional Resources
To sign-up for updates, please fill out the form below.