Hawaiʻi lawmakers call for Big Oil to pay for rising insurance costs

The catastrophic Maui wildfires of 2023 made it clear: Hawaiʻi is on the front lines of the climate crisis. Now its residents are feeling some of the economic consequences, including massive spikes in the price of home and property insurance — with peoples’ bills going up by as much as 1,000%.

Why should Hawaiʻi residents be forced to shoulder these costs alone? Big Oil knew decades ago its products would worsen these kinds of extreme weather disasters, but lied to the public.

Last week Hawaiʻi took an important step toward climate accountability, becoming the first state in the nation to endorse the idea that the fossil fuel industry bears financial responsibility for the rising cost of home insurance in the state. A joint resolution passed by the state House and Senate calls on the state’s insurance providers to limit rate increases on Hawaiʻi families by taking the fossil fuel industry to court for damages from climate disasters. 

Hawaii is not alone. An investigation by the U.S. Senate Budget Committee last year found that climate change is a key driver of the growing insurance crisis, which is raising prices from New England to Montana to Oklahoma. Insurance companies are dramatically raising rates, refusing to renew home insurance policies, and not issuing new policies — a requirement for most people to secure a mortgage to purchase a home. 

With constituents struggling under relentlessly rising housing costs, state lawmakers are starting to respond. Hawaiʻi’s resolution comes after a similar bill requiring insurers to seek damages from the fossil fuel industry passed the state Senate. California legislators are also considering legislation that would allow insurers and climate disaster victims to recover their losses during climate disasters from fossil fuel companies.

Local county leaders are trying to protect island taxpayers as well from the costs associated with climate damages.The City and County of Honolulu and Maui County sued Big Oil companies in 2020 to hold them accountable for their years of deception about their products’ contributions to climate change, which is causing billions of dollars of damage in across the Hawaiian Islands through worsening drought, tropical storms and sea level rise. The U.S. Supreme Court recently turned down oil companies’ request to stop Honolulu’s case from advancing toward trial.

This insurance resolution passed by the Hawai’i legislature can be a model for communities across the country struggling with growing housing and cost of living crises that are being supercharged by climate disasters. Big Oil predicted this outcome decades ago, but opted to bury the science in order to continue making billions of dollars a year. These companies that profited from lying should be the ones paying for the consequences, not everyday Americans.

Image by GAO (GAO-25-107136) from flickr