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Transcript: The Wildfire Policy Blowing Up California’s Home Insurance Market — and Electricity Costs

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The transcript has been automatically generated. Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon , or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also add the show’s RSS feed to your podcast app to follow us directly. Robinson Meyer: Hello, it’s Thursday, August 20, and we’re just a few months from the end of Gavin Newsom’s second term as California governor. He should be coasting to the finish line, maybe gearing up to run for president. But earlier this month, he took up a big legislative push, which, if successful, would be one of his last acts as governor. It’s to reduce how much California’s utilities pay for wildfires. Now, I realize that may sound arcane and maybe even surprising in a populist era. But as you’ll hear, it’s a policy with huge implications for the state’s economy, for its housing costs and for its electricity costs. California’s electricity costs, as you may remember, have surged in recent years and are now the most expensive in the