Weekly Roundup: New U.S. Senate Report Offers Insurance Solutions; Insurance Industry Sides With Big Oil in Lawsuit

Written By Rich Mintz

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 12, 2026

Contact: contact@insurancefairnessproject.com

Weekly Roundup: New U.S. Senate Report Offers Insurance Solutions; Insurance Industry Sides With Big Oil in Lawsuit

Each week, the Insurance Fairness Project highlights the latest developments in the national climate-driven property insurance crisis. For more insurance updates, follow us on LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and Bluesky.

1/ U.S. SENATE REPORT CALLS FOR BOLD ACTION ON THE GROWING HOME INSURANCE CRISIS: With home insurance premiums are up roughly 45% nationally since 2019, U.S. Senator Tina Smith released a new report examining the nationwide crisis, calling out the role of climate-change-driven extreme weather events, and proposing policy responses.

The report calls for restoring capacity at key federal agencies and lays out more than two dozen policy paths to lower physical risks, promote resiliency, and increase affordability and access

  • Tina Smith, U.S. Senator for Minnesota: U.S. Senator Tina Smith Releases New Report on Solutions to the Home Insurance Crisis 

    “Senator Smith’s report provides insights on avenues to ease costs and create a stronger, more reliable insurance system that manages rising premiums and risks. It also examines solutions to some root causes, including excessive profiteering and accelerating climate change,” said TJ Helmstetter, a spokesperson for the Insurance Fairness Project.

2/ KEY INSURANCE AFFORDABILITY SOLUTION: BUILD MORE CLIMATE-RESILIENT HOMES. As climate change continues to destabilize property insurance markets, Public Citizen makes the case in a new report for state-backed, insurer-funded grant programs designed to invest in more resilient housing as a bold solution. 

  1. States should set up robust retrofit grant programs that meet local needs with adequate funding from the insurers who benefit from resilience investments.

  2. Grants should be targeted toward the communities in greatest need of financial assistance for risk mitigation.

  3. States should ensure that resilience investments result in cost savings and other benefits for policyholders.

  4. States should build towards whole-home retrofit programs inclusive of energy efficiency and emissions reduction projects.

  5. States should target long-term success through comprehensive resilience and mitigation strategies.

3/ COLORADO EXPANDS ITS HOME HARDENING PROGRAM: Last week, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed SB 26-155 into law, creating a statewide program to help homeowners install hail-resistant roofs and reduce damage from increasingly costly storms. 

This bill builds on Colorado's HB 1182, which increased transparency around wildfire risk models and required insurers to account for mitigation efforts when setting rates and underwriting policies. 

4/ FLORIDA’S INSURANCE CRISIS IS GETTING WORSE: Insurance costs are so high in hurricane-prone Florida that more homeowners than ever are delaying retirement, postponing home maintenance, or making the stark choice to go without insurance entirely. The premium spike is sorting neighborhoods by wealth and insurability, pushing affordable housing out of reach, and putting communities at risk of a downward spiral when disaster inevitably hits.

The state of Florida has gradually built a complex system of semipublic insurance institutions, but it hasn’t meaningfully tackled resilience at the home and neighborhood scale. Efforts to stimulate private financial market solutions for homeowners have proven challenging, in part because individuals and private markets cannot coordinate comprehensive community adaptation strategies.

5/ COURT CASE EXPOSES INSURER TIES TO BIG OIL: In a recent amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) and other insurance trade groups sided with Exxon and Suncor over home insurance policyholders, putting in sharp relief the insurance industry's deep financial ties to fossil fuels.

Major insurers fiercely protect their commitment to fossil fuel projects, even though an analysis of 28 major property and casualty insurers showed that fossil fuels brought in under 2% of their total insurance premiums. Meanwhile, the $10.6 billion in climate-attributable losses traced to their massive investments in fossil fuels nearly matched the $11.3 billion in premiums. 

6/ FEDERAL CUTS THREATEN WEATHER FORECASTS CRUCIAL TO PREDICTING WILDFIRE: Much of that forecasting work depends on federal labs like Boulder-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and CIRES, whose funding the Trump administration has already cut or threatened to cut.

  • Axios: Federal lab cuts could hamper fire forecasting efforts

    "You check your phone [for the forecast], that came from a computer model that someone ran on a supercomputer … all of that infrastructure comes from the federal government," CIRES associate director Jen Kay tells us "If you cut NOAA by 50%, you cut the quality of the forecast you get on your phone by 50%."

Resources

The Insurance Fairness Project is an information hub dedicated to offering insights into the home insurance crisis, exploring its drivers and highlighting solutions alongside issue experts and community advocates.

Rich Mintz
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Weekly Roundup: New Consumer Protections Emerge as Insurance Affordability Worsens