News & Analysis
May 8, 2026
Legislation in California and Hawai’i aimed at making Big Oil companies pay their fair share of the climate damages driving up the cost of home insurance made significant progress this year, but ultimately failed to advance in both states after heavy lobbying from the fossil fuel industry.
In Hawai’i, Senate Bill 1166 failed to advance to the state’s governor last week after a joint conference committee ran out of time to reconcile language differences between the versions that had previously passed the full Senate and House of Representatives.
The bill would have empowered the state and insurers to take large oil and gas corporations to court to recoup the climate change-related costs of extreme weather disasters that are making home insurance more expensive and harder to secure in the state. But committee chairs committed to form a legislative working group to continue studying the issue in the coming months.
“While it’s disappointing to see the bill stall at the busy end of a legislative session, solid majorities of the Hawai’i House and Senate have now voted in favor of Big Oil paying their fair share of the climate damages that are making home insurance more expensive and harder to secure,” said Iyla Shornstein, Political Director at the Center for Climate Integrity. “We can’t keep passing the costs of climate change onto everyday families while the oil corporations most responsible for the crisis pay nothing, despite having spent decades lying to the public about their products’ contribution to the problem. We look forward to continuing to support communities in Hawai’i and across the country in their efforts to build a fairer system for dealing with the growing financial toll of Big Oil’s climate deception.”
The devastating 2023 Maui wildfires have led to a growing home insurance crisis in the state — with rates increasing by as much as 50% last year. That was before the state was battered by historic flooding in recent months that caused as much as $2 billion in damage.
“Since the Maui wildfires, obtaining or getting access to insurance is getting more challenging in Hawai’i, and Kona low events that we just experienced in March are an example of the challenges we’re seeing across the state with the increasing frequency and intensity of weather events and the hardship its placing on communities,” said Senator Jarrett Keohokalole. “We’ll continue to push for Big Oil accountability in the working group.”
A similar bill in California advanced out of a key Senate Judiciary committee last month before stalling in the Insurance committee amid opposition from the oil industry.
“When we look at who pays the cost of climate-fueled disasters, it is the individuals who are harmed. It’s taxpayers, and it’s people having to pay higher insurance costs,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, the bill’s sponsor. “And who’s not paying? It’s the corporations whose products cause climate change.”
Despite the setbacks, there is growing public attention on the insurance crisis — and growing support for making Big Oil pay their fair share of the damage from worsening wildfires, floods and storms due to fossil fuel-driven climate change.
