Oregon wildfire mitigation bill escapes legislative deadlines

SALEM — A bill meant to reward Oregon landowners for wildfire risk mitigation with more affordable insurance rates will survive until the end of the 2026 legislative session.

However, supporters of Senate Bill 1540 haven't yet reached complete agreement with the insurance industry on the proposal, which could threaten its passage given this year's time constraints.

"It is a challenge to get this done in a 35-day session," said Kenton Brine, president of the NW Insurance Council, which represents the regional industry.

In broad terms, SB 1540 will require insurance companies to consider wildfire mitigation actions in their models for assessing risk, which inform pricing and policy decisions.

Insurers will have to submit these models for verification with Oregon's Department of Consumer and Business Services, but if they don't, they will still have to offer discounts to landowners who undertake wildfire mitigation steps.

Proponents of SB 1540 and representatives of the insurance industry say they're close to a compromise on the legislation, but still have to work out some details.

Short deadline

To give them more time for negotiations, the bill was recently moved to the Senate Rules Committee, which isn't subject to legislative deadlines.

"You have done too much good work to let this die here," said Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, who chairs the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which initially considered SB 1540.

However, this year's short legislative session must conclude by March 8, which has raised concerns about whether there will be enough time for the bill to win approval in the Senate and House.

Many other bills have also recently been sent to the Senate Rules Committee to escape legislative deadlines, which could result in that committee getting "backed up" with legislation, said Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene.

A recently approved amendment makes several changes to SB 1540 to assuage the insurance industry's concerns, said Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California-Berkeley, who supports the proposal.

Specifically, these revisions limit the circumstances under which insurers must submit wildfire risk model information to consumers and make clear they must provide regulators with only these models, rather than their entire underwriting manuals that guide policy and pricing decisions, he said.

"We've made every effort to reach closure on areas of disagreement," Jones said.

The insurance industry recognizes that it if it's going to use wildfire models to strengthen the link between disaster risk and premium rates, it will have to provide such information to consumers, said Brine of the NW Insurance Council.

While a similar proposal was approved in Colorado without opposition from the insurance industry, the rule-making process implementing that legislation has become contentious — a fate that SB 1540 will hopefully avoid if it's sufficiently well-written, he said.

"We would like to make the Oregon legislation even better," Brine said. "We'd like to iron things out in the bill so there isn't a lot left over for the insurance department to arm wrestle with the industry about later."