It’s another matter whether Gov. Gavin Newsom will sign it if the bill is also approved in the Senate and reaches his desk. In 2022, Newsom vetoed a similar bill, citing the need for solar power to reduce greenhouse gases that are a contributing factor for wildfires.
Solar power is a critical part of the state’s ambitious goal to achieve 90% carbon-free electricity by 2035 and 100% by 2045. Large-scale and rooftop solar is projected to prove more than half of the grid’s power by 2045.
“Extending this exemption would nullify these positive outcomes and instead would increase homeowner energy costs at a time when many homeowners are facing rising electric rates and bills,” Newsom wrote in his veto message (PDF).
Asked about this latest bill, Newsom’s press office responded that the governor doesn’t typically comment on pending legislation.
Joe Patterson said he hopes Newsom would support this bill, given that it’s more narrow than the one he vetoed in 2022, and because some Caldor Fire victims with poor insurance say they never received federal disaster relief cash to help them rebuild.
Meanwhile, the insurance crisis in California’s wildfire country has only gotten worse since.
After the devastating wildfire seasons of 2017 and 2018, private insurance companies have been dropping policies for hundreds of thousands of Californians, forcing many to join the state’s home insurer of last resort known as FAIR plan or risk going uninsured.
Just last month, State Farm announced it wasn’t renewing 72,000 California home and apartment policies.
In his testimony before the Natural Resources Committee, Patterson said his district has seen skyrocketing numbers of constituents on the FAIR Plan.
