January 19, 2023
OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Workplace of the Insurance coverage Commissioner (OIC) just lately delivered a report to the state Legislature and Governor on the legal responsibility insurance coverage marketplace for electrical utilities in Washington.
The OIC labored with the Utilities and Transportation Commissioner and Division of Commerce to survey 36 utilities on the supply and affordability of legal responsibility protection. Most didn’t report any challenges in acquiring protection over the previous 5 years. One of these insurance coverage offers a utility with legal responsibility protection if it causes an damage or harm to somebody’s property.
The utilities that did report points, nevertheless, mentioned they noticed important adjustments over the past 5 years:
- Legal responsibility insurance coverage prices elevated dramatically.
- Wildfire exclusions have been added.
- The variety of corporations keen to offer protection decreased.
These points made it troublesome for some utilities to buy an appropriate degree of legal responsibility protection at a worth that doesn’t affect operations or go the extra price on to customers. These outcomes, which comply with industry-wide developments, spotlight that the potential for costly harm claims immediately impacts entry to and affordability of legal responsibility insurance coverage.
The insurers nonetheless providing protection seem to have mixed Washington right into a a lot wider danger class that features different Western states — together with California — with distinctive local weather situations that produce increased dangers and, consequently, legal responsibility requirements.
The OIC’s report offers the Legislature with a number of coverage choices to contemplate, together with:
- Shaping the surroundings below which a harm declare is generated.
- Funding mitigation efforts.
- Modifying the negligence requirements for utility corporations.
- Growing academic applications to assist underwriters higher perceive state-specific dangers.