A bill introduced in California’s state Legislature would make fossil fuel companies legally liable for damages from climate change, similar to current law holding utilities liable for fires

California's bill aims to alleviate the financial burdens on victims of such disasters and insurance companies by allowing them to sue the oil industry to recoup their losses.

For decades, California's byzantine insurance regulations effectively forced insurers to subsidize people living in wildfire-prone areas. With the recent devastating wildfires in Los Angeles exposing the state's already in-crisis property insurance industry to tens of billions in losses,

Oil industry officials say the bill is ‘nothing more than a political opportunity. We need real solutions to help victims in the wake of this tragedy,

Two California Democrats unveiled a bill Monday that they said would allow insurers and policyholders affected by the Los Angeles fires to sue major oil corporations for their alleged role in the disaster.

California State Senator Scott Wiener says that the oil industry should be liable in a natural disaster because oil companies intentionally deceived the public about the risk of fossil fuels.

Opponents say the bill’s authors are scapegoating the fossil fuel industry for ‘complicated’ weather-related disasters caused by a variety of factors.