Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson         Red Bluff Daily News 2/25/2024

        Insurance woes; climate boondoggles

You don’t have to look to the sad state of Southern California’s burned-out homeowners to grasp the problems facing those needing, let alone filing claims on, homeowner’s insurance policies. Upon being informed, while out of state for the summer, that our decades-long State Farm policy—which has never had a claim filed in those same three+ decades—was being canceled, we were in quite the conundrum.

I’m sure many have experienced it, but it came as a shock. While our home on Saint Marys Avenue is within 2 miles of a CalFire station on Antelope Blvd, standards somehow changed, “goalposts were moved,” and we were (long story short) “un-insurable.” A Redding agency searched for companies, to no avail.

I’ll spare readers the details of insurance inspectors’ reports, recommended mitigation (weeds and foliage removal, etc.), arranging for workers to perform said mitigation, and the disappointing phone calls informing us that we were to be at the mercy of California’s “FAIR” insurance plan. It stands for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements—ironic in the extreme. All while traveling in Idaho, the Cascades and various campgrounds on the Oregon coast.

Oh, we did get insured, but at an initial rate north of a $4,000 annual premium. Upon asking if there were any options for the coverage, we were able to reduce some coverage amounts to a premium between $2,000 and $2,500, and God forbid we should find ourselves relying on it in a disaster.

I read of two homeowners in Altadena in identical single-family homes side-by-side, one with a private company policy, the other with the FAIR policy. The private company insurance was quite responsive with checks for needed expenses; the FAIR plan personnel, for the neighbor, seemed to be in “stealth mode,” with unreturned phone calls and little more than promises for similar financial needs.

Previous columns have covered the government-created impossibilities for insurance companies to operate in a state that refuses to apply the same standards—“mitigation” of fire-prone conditions around developed areas—as a private citizen must do around their home. The state of Florida, for instance, has similar natural disaster exposure. However, it has worked with insurance companies to make it possible to provide sufficient insurance state-wide such that unforeseen disasters, the re-insurance market, and other factors allow the private market to work for the benefit of all.

The example of the Shaver Lake area remains, where private ownership of forests allowed for thinning that stopped a fire that raged through Forest Service land but ran out of fuel before destroying that area’s homes. Quite the opposite result from the overgrown, brush filled ravines and canyons in SoCal’s burned-out areas.

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Before this week’s list-of-horribles, let’s give credit to Gov. Gavin Newsom for a right decision (which hopefully has not been reneged on). “Gavin Newsom Vows Veto of Bill That Protects Criminal Illegal Aliens in CA Prisons from Deportation” (Warren Squire, and Politico.com, 2/14). It’s a half-hearted promise, to be sure, as Newsom clings to anti-American, anti-Constitutional “sanctuary” policies otherwise, but progress just the same.

Elsewhere: 1) “Soros-Backed Radio Station Gave up the Locations of ICE Agents in California” (pjmedia.com, 2/5) should provided ICE and Border Czar Tom Homan, and Attorney General Pam Bondi with predicates for indictments and punishment. Seems “insurrection-ary” to me.

2) “Texas Gains Another Big Employer at California’s Expense” (Ward Clark, redstate.com, 2/11), caught my attention as a former 16-year real estate agent. “A real estate giant has joined the growing list of companies abandoning California and heading to Texas. Realtor.com, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, announced it is relocating its headquarters from Santa Clara to Austin.” Companies vote with their feet and assets for fair treatment.

3) “Fire-Ravaged California Spending Nearly $10 Billion on Health Care for Illegal Aliens” and, stated more harshly, “Treason: Musk Blasts Newsom’s $9.5 Billion Giveaway to Illegal Aliens” (pjmedia.com, lifezette.com, 2/16). Foolish, or treasonous; you decide.

4) “Unbelievable! Gavin Newsom Begs President for Money, Then Approves $50M Slush Fund to 'Trump-Proof' CA” (Bob Hoge, redstate.com, 2/8). Every Calif. county, and the state as a whole, moved to the right, but Newsom, Dems et al are “Trump deranged” and can’t let go.

CA climate craziness: “A Wooden Stake Through the Heart of California High Speed Rail?” (David Strom, hotair.com) provides some hope that one of the most expensive climate-driven infrastructure boondoggles in history may find its demise at the hands of a Republican Congress.

“The Left’s Climate Grift Is Being Exposed” (Katie Pavlich, Townhall.com, 2/14). Power from the Ivanpah solar plant off I-15 near the CA/NV border will no longer be purchased by PG&E, resulting in shutting down two of the plant’s three towers, with the third likely to follow. Just kiss that Barack Obama-heralded $1.6 billion taxpayer-funded, wildlife-executioner (via scorching rays) goodbye. Touted as the “dawn of a new era in power generation” in America, it’s following the inevitable demise of wind and solar as suppliers of dependable, cheap electricity.