Letter: Making affordable wildfire insurance a top priority

In 2021, the Napa County Farm Bureau was gratified to see the passage of Senate Bill 11—Farm Bureau sponsored legislation that began to seriously address the issue of the lack of wildfire insurance availability in Napa County and around the state. In Napa County, we began to see our members' experience with insurance start to change with the admitted market pulling away from our area en mass.

Before the passage of Senate Bill 11, farming and ranching operations did not have access to basic property insurance provided by the California FAIR Plan, leaving commercial agricultural infrastructure, wineries, farming equipment and other components uninsured. Senate Bill 11 authorized these operations to access the California FAIR Plan for basic property coverage and provide a necessary property insurance backstop for agricultural infrastructure.

The passage of Senate Bill 11 was the culmination of months of hard work by the Farm Bureau to address the wildfire insurance issue and it has produced real, tangible results for hundreds and hundreds of farms around California. However, the work continues and at Napa County Farm Bureau, we have made this issue a top priority and continue to work to produce real results for our members as opposed to simply talking about the issue.

In Napa County, there are a number of Farm Bureau members who continue to experience problems with wildfire insurance. For those agricultural businesses that have been able to maintain insurance through the private market, members have seen their premiums triple or quadruple on average for a mere fraction of the coverage they once had.

In May 2021, the Napa County Farm Bureau brought California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to Napa Valley and hosted a forum for him with Farm Bureau members who were directly impacted by the lack of wildfire insurance. We heard from a number of member wineries, vineyards and other ag operations who struggled to find any appropriate coverage.

The passage of Senate Bill 11 was a start to address the wildfire insurance issue and Farm Bureau's work continues on this issue in order to produce results for our members.

Senate bill 505 (Rubio) is current Farm Bureau sponsored legislation that would expand the FAIR plan "clearinghouse" to commercial insurance policies so that residential and commercial policies covering property on the same parcel can both move out of the FAIR plan and back to the competitive insurance market altogether. This is an important piece of legislation that would positively impact Farm Bureau members not only in Napa Valley, but around California.

This month, I testified before the California Senate Insurance Committee on the current state of the insurance market and the ongoing challenges and opportunities that we see for our members. I testified that a number of members want to see improvements in the way the FAIR plan is currently structured, as well as the fact that many businesses in Napa County are choosing to "self-insure".

If they can afford to, and they choose to "self-insure," businesses invest hundreds of thousands of dollars installing water pumps and generators, and conducting all defensible space measures possible—including development of their own fire brigade that responds to any red flag watches.

Subsequent to the Senate Insurance Committee's oversight hearing where I gave testimony, we were very pleased to see Insurance Commissioner Lara announce on March 29 that the California FAIR Plan Association has agreed to more than double its existing commercial coverage limits to $20 million for businesses unable to find coverage in the normal insurance marketplace.

Even with all of these actions, or formal actions such as participation in a Firewise Council, there is no guarantee that the insurance policies are going to come back into the admitted market. And that's the goal—getting back to the admitted market covering risk on millions of dollars of exposure both in physical property and personal property, both residential and commercial. While improving the ability for farmers to be fully risk protected inside the FAIR plan would be an important goal, equally as important is returning policies to the admitted market.

As we continue to address the issue of wildfire in Napa County, we will continue to make wildfire insurance a top priority for our members and continually work to produce real results they can see instead of only talking about the issue. This issue is a great example of why a county farm bureau exists—we are a public policy based organization with expertise in addressing these types of problems and finding real legislative solutions for our members.

Peter Nissen, President

Napa County Farm Bureau