For decades, California's byzantine insurance regulations effectively forced insurers to subsidize people living in wildfire-prone areas. With the recent devastating wildfires in Los Angeles exposing the state's already in-crisis property insurance industry to tens of billions in losses,

California's bill aims to alleviate the financial burdens on victims of such disasters and insurance companies by allowing them to sue the oil industry to recoup their losses.

Oil industry officials say the bill is ‘nothing more than a political opportunity. We need real solutions to help victims in the wake of this tragedy,

California lawmakers introduced a first-in-the-nation bill Monday to create a clear legal pathway for individuals and insurance companies to sue oil companies for damages after fires like the ones that destroyed whole neighborhoods in Los Angeles this month.

Opponents say the bill’s authors are scapegoating the fossil fuel industry for ‘complicated’ weather-related disasters caused by a variety of factors.

California State Senator Scott Wiener says that the oil industry should be liable in a natural disaster because oil companies intentionally deceived the public about the risk of fossil fuels.

California lawmakers proposed making fossil fuel companies liable for natural disasters by allowing natural disaster victims and insurance companies to sue them due to their alleged impact on the environment.