The strategy group will draw from California’s research and higher education communities to recommend a new, publicly accessible data source to predict future wildfire losses. This effort will support California’s goals of building safer communities and expanding access to insurance coverage.
“We can’t keep our Department and Californians in the dark ages when it comes to the use of technology and climate science. We are harnessing the power of California’s unparalleled academic institutions for a public wildfire catastrophe model that will be the first in the world,” said Commissioner Lara, who is a graduate of San Diego State University. “A public model will be a benchmark for my Department to help keep insurance rates fair and accurate, a reliable source of data for local governments increasing wildfire safety, and a rich educational and career-building opportunity for students and researchers.”
The partnership between public universities and a state regulator is unique in the California government. Cal Poly Humboldt Dean of the College of Natural Resources Eric Riggs will serve as the chair for the strategy group and invite experts in climate science, forestry, and wildfire safety education from across the California State University system and other universities and non-profits engaged in wildfire safety. The strategy group will create recommendations to submit to Commissioner Lara by April 2025, an ambitious six-month timeline keeping California at the forefront of climate innovation and consumer protection.
“Cal Poly Humboldt and the California State University System are deeply committed to engaging, hands-on education focused on the workforce needs of California and scholarship on those issues of direct concern to our residents,” said Eric Riggs, Dean of the College of Natural Resources & Sciences at Cal Poly Humboldt, who will chair the strategy group. “This effort combines the collective strengths of the CSU system in forestry and applied fire science and those of other major institutions across the state to address this coupled workforce and scientific challenge. We are honored to be convening this effort to address growing risks of wildland fire for future generations.”
This strategy group’s mission is enabled by a new regulation that Commissioner Lara is currently finalizing that will allow insurance companies to utilize forecasting in the setting of insurance rates. The Department will hold a public hearing today, Sept. 17, at 10 a.m. to take public input on the proposed catastrophe modeling and ratemaking regulation. The regulation specifies that models must calculate wildfire safety benefits, such as forest-management actions by state and local fire agencies and work by public and private utilities to reduce ignition sources – something not required under current rules.
Among U.S. states, only Florida has a public catastrophe model used for estimating the future costs of hurricanes and windstorms. That model required five years and millions of dollars to establish and maintain. Recommendations from California’s new strategy group will include technical issues, public benefits, timelines, and potential funding sources. The strategy group expects to convene its first meeting in October 2024.
The strategy group is the first between the Department of Insurance and universities and is modeled on the partnership between state agencies that created the nation’s first wildfire mitigation framework for insurance, which ultimately led to Commissioner Lara’s Safer from Wildfires regulation. The strategy group is also designed based on the structure of successful academic partnerships such as the Pacific Offshore Wind Consortium, a joint effort between Cal Poly Humboldt, Oregon State University, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
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