Insurance Coverage Near-Impossible For Coastal LA Residents As Insurance Companies Invest More In Exxon, BP, Etc.

EDIT

“I’ve never seen it this bad.” Eddie LeJuine has been fishing and shrimping along the southwestern coast of Louisiana for about four decades. The garrulous 62-year-old can talk for hours about the best fishing spots and the quiet moments at dusk when the ospreys glide through the marshes. He’s raised a family in Cameron Parish, the heel of the boot, as the state is known, with five kids and 10 grandchildren, one of whom just joined the local sheriff’s office.

EDIT

“They’ve ruined so much of our fishing grounds,” LeJuine told Capital & Main, noting that a dredging accident in early August by a gas company preparing for the new CP2 LNG facility buried crab traps and oyster beds. He’s seen his income from fishing and shrimping plummet to a quarter of what he was earning in 2019 — from $175,000 before expenses down to about $40,000 before expenses. LeJuine has also been hit by skyrocketing property insurance rates due to the increasing severity of climate change-related disasters like hurricanes and coastal flooding. Louisiana is one of the most expensive states for property insurance, with many insurers withdrawing from the market due to massive losses. LeJuine said his homeowners insurance premium more than tripled in just three years, from $5,800 in 2021 to $19,000 in 2024.

“I can’t afford it. This past year was the first year that I didn’t have insurance, and I’ve lived here since 1985,” he said. The only thing keeping him and his wife from moving back to his home state of Virginia is the desire to stay close to his grandkids, LeJuine added. The perfect storm of climate change, expanding oil and gas production, and costly homeowners insurance is devastating residents of coastal Louisiana, as well as many other states from Florida and North Carolina to California and Arizona. They’re inextricably linked, creating a vicious cycle — the insurance industry invests heavily in the fossil fuel industry, which contributes significantly to climate change, causing a spike in insurance rates for residents living in the many risk-prone regions of the country.

EDIT

Though many property and casualty insurers have reduced their investments in oil, gas and coal over the last decade, insurance giants remain among the largest financiers of fossil fuels. U.S. insurers held $536 billion in fossil fuel-related assets in 2019, according to a report by sustainability consulting firm ERM and advocacy group Ceres. The trend has only accelerated. In 2023, fossil fuel companies made up 4.4% of the investment portfolio of the insurance industry — an increase from 3.8% nine years earlier, per the Wall Street Journal. Major insurers are still investing heavily in fossil fuel companies — in 2024, Berkshire Hathaway had almost $96 billion in fossil fuel investments, State Farm had more than $20 billion, Allianz had more than $26 billion and Chubb had nearly $900 million, according to the Investing in Climate Chaos database maintained by German nonprofit Urgewald.

EDIT

https://capitalandmain.com/on-louisianas-gulf-coast-residents-fume-as-insurers-hike-rates-and-invest-in-fossil-fuel-projects