Fire-Bombing Drones Keep Firefighters Safe in Prescribed Burns

Link: https://www.govtech.com/products/fire-bombing-drones-keep-firefighters-safe-in-prescribed-burns?utm_campaign=Newsletter%20-%20GT%20-%20GovTech%20Today&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=262543864&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9cKiMnR5SEZ5LqjD0xlm7Y2UK9bJ3ek7riTeox-rO11Qok9nthGAZcnV5pUb69I1cdyNZPSe3oYfVk4axtFufocifCEO_-bvzdCk7Kpuz8TuK7dhw&utm_content=262544854&utm_source=hs_email

Excerpt:

Prescribed burns are a proven way to reduce the impact of destructive wildfires, but they still come with risks to the firefighters who carry them out. That was the impetus behind a project from the National Science Foundation’s National Research Traineeship (NRT) program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) that uses a drone to drop fireballs to ignite prescribed burns, keeping firefighters out of harm’s way.

Publication Date: Jun 2023

Publication Site: govTech

The real reason State Farm won’t sell home insurance in California anymore

Link: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/the-real-reason-state-farm-wont-sell-home-insurance-in-california-anymore?utm_source=deployer&utm_medium=email&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Beltway+Confidential&utm_term=

Excerpt:

I spoke to Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, who cited several policies that no doubt contributed to State Farm’s decision to stop issuing policies, including various price controls that prevent insurers from raising prices to meet surging costs without the written approval of the California Department of Insurance.

“California is the only state in the country that doesn’t allow insurers’ rates to be based upon actual reinsurance costs,” Frazier said. “California’s regulations employ a legal fiction that each insurer uses its own capital to serve customers. As reinsurance costs go up, insurers cannot have their rates reflect those higher costs.”

Author(s): Jon Miltimore

Publication Date: 2 Jun 2023

Publication Site: Washington Examiner

Why Insurers Are Fleeing California

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/state-farm-homeowners-insurance-california-2a934a22?st=0vc5cbqwbedf0b2&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Excerpt:

State Farm General Insurance Co. last week became the latest insurer to retreat from California’s homeowners market. The culprit isn’t climate change, as the media claims in parroting Sacramento talking points. The cause is the Golden State’s hostile insurance environment.

The nation’s top property and casualty insurer on Friday said it won’t accept new applications for homeowners insurance, citing “historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market.”

In other words, State Farm can’t accurately price risk and increase its rates to cover ballooning liabilities. Other property and casualty insurers, including AIG and Chubb, have also been shrinking their California footprint after years of catastrophic wildfires, which are becoming more common owing to drought and decades of poor forest management.

Author(s): Editorial Board

Publication Date: 30 May 2023

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Skip the fireworks this record-dry 4th of July, over 150 wildfire scientists urge the US West

Link: https://theconversation.com/skip-the-fireworks-this-record-dry-4th-of-july-over-150-wildfire-scientists-urge-the-us-west-163561

Graphic:

Excerpt:

For decades, one of the most striking and predictable patterns of human behavior in the western U.S. has been people accidentally starting fires on the Fourth of July. From 1992 to 2015, more than 7,000 wildfires started in the U.S. on July 4 – the most wildfires ignited on any day during the year. And most of these are near homes.

Author(s): Philip Higuera, Alexander L. Metcalf, Dave McWethy, Jennifer Balch

Publication Date: 1 July 2021

Publication Site: The Conversation