Dave Jones

08/28/2026

Governor Newsom's & the private investor owned utilities' proposal to limit utility liabilty and damages for starting wildfires will raise insurance prices and make insurance even less available in California. CA legislators should reject this handout to utilities at expense of fire survivors.

A last-minute proposal would shift wildfire costs from utilities to consumers, risking higher insurance premiums and weaker accountability.

08/27/2026

Join us September 9th for this on-line webinar about the climate crisis' causing the insurance crisis and what we can do about it.
https://luma.com/0gw5xadr.

08/05/2026

As former insurance commissioner for the largest insurance market in the United States, I know firsthand that the climate crisis is causing the home insurance crisis, which could unleash a full-blown financial crisis.

The insurance industry has sided with the fossil fuel companies driving climate disasters rather than the communities and families facing it, in the case brought by Boulder to hold oil companies accountable for their lies and deception about climate change.

Keeping insurance viable depends on communities recouping climate costs from responsible parties.

I submitted this brief to the US Supreme Court to make clear: The biggest threat to insurance and the hudnreds of millions who depend on it isn’t from climate accountability lawsuits, but from climate change itself. It’s high time insurers end their support of the fossil fuel industry and work instead to help curb the climate risk that is driving the insurance crisis across the country.

07/16/2026

Out today is the National Academies of Science landmark report affirming recent work in the field of climate attribution science. The field is dedicated to linking weather-related disasters -wildfires, heatwaves, floods, hurricanes- to climate change.

Attribution science is a critical tool for society to plan and thrive in a warming world. It is relied on by urban planners and developers, by banks and insurers, by forest managers and farmers, by public health professionals, emergency responders, and more to plan for the future.

But attribution science also provides key evidence for legal efforts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the damage that they knowingly caused through lawsuits brought by governments, communities and individuals seeking to recover for deaths, injuries, and damage or loss of homes and businesses resulting from climate-driven weather related disasters.

The fossil fuel industry is attacking attribution science because they know the research proves that their products make extreme weather events worse and more damaging.

Event attribution seeks to tease out the influence of human-caused climate change on specific weather and climate events. This study will update and expand on the 2016 National Academies report, Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the Context of Climate Change, by considering current scientific...

06/02/2026

Californians, join me in voting for Senator Ben Allen for Insurance Commissioner!

Since his first election to the State Senate in 2014, Ben has become an effective leader in the Legislature; leading critical committees and spearheading nearly dozens of new laws across a wide range of issues.

04/21/2026

ICYMI. My NY Times Sunday print edition op ed on Big Oil's effort to get the same Congressional immunity shield given to gun manufacturers. Congress should reject that bad idea. Instead, Big Oil should be held accountable financially for its contribution to climate driven losses.

The fossil fuel industry has mounted a carefully orchestrated campaign to stop climate lawsuits and saddle the public with the costs of climate change.

04/14/2026

Big CA study recommending how to allocate costs from catastrophic wildfires has glaring omission. No discussion of holding Big Oil accountable for their substantial contribution to the crisis. Instead of shifting deck chairs on Titanic, we need to pass SB 982. My Chron op ed today: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/climate-change-california-big-oil-wildfires-22204327.php

SB 982 in Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon. Call or email Democratic Senators this morning and ask them to support SB 982 (Scott Wiener). FInd members emails/phones here: https://sjud.senate.ca.gov/members

OPINION: Oil companies continue to escape accountability for their role in climate change disasters and their share of the costs are being passed onto the public, Dave Jones writes.

04/13/2026

Californians (and anyone else)! Email or call Democratic State Senators on the CA Senate Judiciary Committee today & urge them to vote tomorrow for SB982 (Wiener) (Affordable Insurance & Recovery Act). https://envirovoters.org/insurance-affordability/

Find their names and links to email addresses and phone numbers here: https://sjud.senate.ca.gov/members

California is in an insurance crisis, and politicians are siding with corporate polluters over everyday families. Californians shouldn't be the only ones footing the bill of the climate crisis.

04/08/2026

Hawaii joins CA and NY with legislation to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for insurance related losses and to stabilize insurance markets. Center for Climate Integrity
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-04-08/hawaii-kona-lows-storm-damages-deserve-relief-from-fossil-fuels?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc3NTY1MjczOSwiZXhwIjoxNzc2MjU3NTM5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJURDY5ODRLR1pBUEowMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIxMkE1QzVFRUNERDg0NUJEQjVFOTM1MUE0Mzk4QTAxNCJ9.ecNiMTfZK6YbARaI76KX_FMHQOfpcTqgjzbDyo0LqLE

Hawaii may seem like Eden to those of us living in, say, New Jersey. But lately the only thing biblical about it has been the scale of the punishment it’s taking from nature. In the process, it’s also becoming a battleground in the fight over who will ultimately pay for all the destruction.