Penna Dexter

Who or what is to blame for the scale of the wildfires that destroyed massive swaths of Los Angeles this winter? Some politicians point to climate change and fossil fuels. Two California legislators have filed a bill to allow insurers and homeowners impacted by the fires to sue oil companies for their losses.

Lawmakers hope to cover damages the state is liable for through its underfunded insurance, the last resort for millions of Californians as state-imposed price controls have driven private insurers out of the state.

Tom McClintock, 8-term member of Congress from California, says climate change is not the culprit here. It’s the state’s “environmental and social policies.” In a Wall Street Journal, op ed, Rep. McClintock says California’s once-competent fire management policies and infrastructure, explain “why fires became less threatening throughout most of the 20^thcentury.” He points to federal environmental legislation, first passed in the 70’s, which has been taken to extremes in California. Consequently, forest thinning projects cost millions and take an average of 5.3 years to be approved. Brush suppression is made more difficult. Cattle grazing “has largely been regulated out of use.” And “leftist officials neglected the region’s basic water infrastructure” in favor of wind and solar spending.

The 21^st--century result: devastating loss of forests and homes. There are fixes for aging water lines, pumping systems, water tanks, and even reservoirs. But mostly they have not been implemented. National Review’s Noah Rothman describes a “bombshell” report, published in the Los Angeles Times, which could help Angelinos hold leaders to account “for their maladministration.” This review of thousands of pages of state, county and city records “reveals how thoroughly officials in Southern California dropped the ball when it came to fire management.” But, officials and the press have mainly tried “to persuade the public that the details revealed in this report amount to “misinformation.”

Our country has bold new leaders. Californians should find some.