#california-regulation

#california-regulation

Farmers Insurance Group is set to hike its overall policy rate starting this fall. The state's second-largest home insurer will increase rates by 1.5% for nearly 915,000 California homeowners. The increase comes after a set of regulatory reforms passed last year that altered the way insurance companies price wildfire risk.

The use of the Defense Production Act would preempt state laws and speed permitting for Sable Offshore Corp., a Houston company that has sought to restart production from California offshore platforms. The Santa Ynez Unit consists of three offshore oil platforms that produce crude oil and natural gas off the coast of Santa Barbara, along with an onshore processing facility.

For decades, business leaders have complained that California's regulatory climate has overburdened companies across the state, blaming a morass of rules, permits and paperwork for pushing businesses and jobs out of state and holding back economic growth. To help measure the impact of the regulations, the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, sought to compare the number of business requirements in the state with those in other parts of the country.

"California's policies have slowed American commerce long enough," Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) said in a post on the social media platform X announcing the bill.

As California again delays controversial rules requiring homeowners in fire-prone areas to maintain a 5-foot "ember-resistant" zone around their houses, a new report finds that properties that were already close to that standard were much less likely to be destroyed in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January. With ashes still smoldering, researchers with the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, an industry-backed group, surveyed 252 homes that had been in the path of the blazes in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.

As the Wall Street Journal reports today, via unnamed sources close to the company, OpenAI executives are reportedly discussing a "last-ditch" option to preserve their plans, which would be relocating out of the state of California. A spokesperson for the company quoted by the Journal denies that this is under consideration. But the paper's source suggest that executives have floated the idea of a move out of state if things get worse with the AG's investigation.