Environment & Energy

Last year, Jamie Lafollette, a 35-year-old from Santa Cruz, California received the upsetting news that State Farm was not renewing the policy she and her husband had on their home for the previous 10 years. They had never made a claim.

Aware their community had been deemed a high risk for wildfires, Lafollette said she and her neighbors spent thousands of dollars fortifying their homes with concrete siding, fire-resistant roofs and creating buffer zones around their properties. But none of that seemed to matter when it came time for her to buy a new insurance policy.

Lafollette had been paying about $2,000 a year to insure their home. When she sought a new estimate, she was confronted with annual insurance rates of more than $20,000 a year.

Lafollete said since that eye-popping quote, the cheapest rate she’s seen so far was through the state-sponsored FAIR Plan at nearly $9,000 a year. Even that is too expensive, said Lafollette, who works for a nonprofit and whose husband is a disabled combat veteran.