[billjings]

The real philosophy is in the budget.

[doctorpangloss]

Trees and empty land cost nothing. But:

            CA Insurance Claims USFS Wildfire
    Year    and Settlements     Management Budget
    2018    $13.6 billion       $2.5 billion
    2019    $2.8 billion        $2.4 billion
    2020    $3.5 billion        $2.35 billion
    2021    $4.75 billion       $2.4 billion
    2022    (unknown)           $2.65 billion
    2023    (unknown)           $2.97 billion

The expensive part of forest fires is paying back homeowners who lost their homes in places guaranteed to be lit on fire, at prices for homes as though the fires didn't exist. The way we chose to do this is by saying it was PG&E's fault, and in exchange, PG&E gets to recoup those payments via permanently higher rates.

It is a little complicated, but it isn't that complicated. The simple question is, should the government pay a safe home's price for a burnt down home?

[deepsun]

No. Let owners exercise owner's responsibility (e.g. insurance, and if insurance is too expensive -- well, the risk is too high).

PS: I heard the thing California does, however, is putting a cap on insurance premiums, so insurers just avoid some regions, and owners cannot find insurance to buy. It's kinda the same thing -- owner's responsibility.

[aidenn0]

The camp fire was caused by a failed hook on lines where similar hooks showed extreme wear-and-tear, despite PG&E claiming to have inspected them recently. It's not like we just decided to say it was PG&E's fault; their inspections were clearly missing important deferred maintenance.

If the fire had been caused by someone without the funds to pay for damages (e.g. a homeless encampment (Day Fire) or college students improperly extinguishing an illegal bonfire (Tea fire)), then there might be criminal charges, but insurance companies will be on the hook.

[culi]

Bad philosophy. Less prescribed burns mean more uncontrollable wildfires which means in the long term costs are even higher.

Prescribed burns are expensive now because we haven't done them for so long. California banned the indigenous practice of cultural burns before it was even a state! But the more we work on restoring this practice the cheaper it'll be for everyone in the long term

[zo1]

Enshittification strikes again. In this case, fees and costs go down by virtue of being pushed out into the future as even higher costs as a result of lack of fees being paid now. Someone should make an encyclopedia or reference doc detailing all the different and specific ways Enshittification manifests. Bonus points if they tie it into Socialism/Communism because I'd bet there is a high degree of overlap between the two in terms of failure modes.