Weekly Roundup: Texans Blame Insurers, Flood Risk Keeps Rising, Big Oil Should Pay
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2025
Contact: contact@insurancefairnessproject.com
Weekly Roundup: Texans Blame Insurers, Flood Risk Keeps Rising, Big Oil Should Pay
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/ NEW REPORT: BIG OIL SHOULD PAY FOR THE INSURANCE CRISIS
A new Center for Climate Integrity report makes the case that fossil fuel companies should be held financially responsible for the home insurance crisis. CCI says ExxonMobil and Chevron knowingly contributed to climate change while misleading the public, directly accelerating the climate disasters now driving up premiums and making insurance unavailable.
Center for Climate Integrity: Climate change is causing a home insurance crisis. Big Oil should pay.
The average American didn’t create this mess; the fossil fuel industry did, and profited handsomely in the process. State leaders have an important role to play in making the industry most responsible for the problem pay its fair share, helping save the American dream of homeownership from the fossil fuel industry’s greed.
2/ FLOOD RISK KEEPS RISING, BUT INSURANCE ISN’T KEEPING UP: New analysis from the New York Fed breaks down the disconnect between growing flood risk and declining flood insurance coverage — just as Congress is running up on the deadline to extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which would expire on Sept. 30. The program provides flood insurance for approximately 5 million households.
New York Fed’s Liberty Street Economics: Flood Risk and Flood Insurance
…(1) substantial flood risk exists even for properties outside of the mandated insurance areas, and (2) there are significant differences in flood insurance take-up between properties inside and outside the mandated insurance areas. Mortgage lenders are aware of this predominantly uninsured flood risk and have taken actions to manage their exposures.
3/ NATURE CAN HELP SAVE THE INSURANCE SYSTEM: From the Environmental Defense Fund, a new report shows investing in natural systems like wetlands, mangroves, and floodplains can lower disaster risk and help stabilize insurance markets — and insurers should help make those investments happen, and factor nature-based resilience into risk calculations.
Environmental Defense Fund: Nature for Insurance and Insurance for Nature
4/ TEXANS SAY HOME INSURERS ARE MAKING THE CRISIS WORSE: 82% of Texans surveyed blame insurers’ pursuit of profits for the rising cost of home insurance, and 91% say the state government should do more to face the crisis.
Climate Power: Key Findings from Poll on Texas Home Insurance
5/ RESEARCHERS RESCUE DISASTER DATA: The Trump administration is defunding research and shutting down tools that insurers and climatologists alike depend on for accurate risk planning. The nonprofit Climate Central will make sure the key database tracking billion-dollar disasters stays online — and they’ll improve and expand it.
Claims Journal: Researchers Are Resurrecting Billion-Dollar Disaster Tool Trump Killed
Looking ahead, Smith said he hopes to compile and analyze data on disasters with far smaller price tags down to the $100 million threshold. These include severe hail storms in the US Midwest and Mountain West, which are a growing concern for the insurance sector. While NOAA typically reported wildfire damages seasonally across an entire region, Climate Central will also work to calculate losses from individual blazes, something Smith said would make the data “more transparent and more granular.”
Resources
Insurance Fairness Project: Polling – Voters Want Their Government to Address the Property Insurance Crisis
Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project: Mapping the Home Insurance Crisis
Consumer Federation of America: Overburdened: The Dramatic Increase in Homeowners Insurance Premiums and its Impacts on American Homeowners
Brookings Institution: Homeowners insurance in an era of climate change
Revolving Door Project: Trump disaster policy tracker:Timeline and Map
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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.
