Michael Wara
@michaelwara.bsky.social
Works at Stanford on equitable climate and energy law/policy with a big helping of wildfire and insurance.
Looking forward to having you in the neighborhood!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
November 10, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Looking forward to having you in the neighborhood!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
A capital strike is a decision by a utility not to deploy capital to construct needed infrastructure because its owners - in this case BHE - believe it cannot earn a fair risk adjusted return. This is the ultimate breakdown of the utility compact in a jurisdiction.
November 7, 2025 at 11:08 PM
A capital strike is a decision by a utility not to deploy capital to construct needed infrastructure because its owners - in this case BHE - believe it cannot earn a fair risk adjusted return. This is the ultimate breakdown of the utility compact in a jurisdiction.
Reposted by Michael Wara
Fig 5 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show increases in home insurance costs by risk quintile in California. The hard truth is that if we burn down more houses, insurance is going to cost more. A lot more. Those costs are disproportionately borne by residents in high fire risk areas.
November 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Fig 5 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show increases in home insurance costs by risk quintile in California. The hard truth is that if we burn down more houses, insurance is going to cost more. A lot more. Those costs are disproportionately borne by residents in high fire risk areas.
Fix (“harden”) older homes. Redo backyards to make them safe (and still beautiful, fun, with curb appeal). Stay laser focussed on retrofit of old homes and communities, not new construction.
November 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Fix (“harden”) older homes. Redo backyards to make them safe (and still beautiful, fun, with curb appeal). Stay laser focussed on retrofit of old homes and communities, not new construction.
The real solutions are not to gripe about insurance costs; they are to get really serious about doing the things that will reduce structure losses. And we actually know what to do. We just (mostly) haven’t done it since 2017.
November 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
The real solutions are not to gripe about insurance costs; they are to get really serious about doing the things that will reduce structure losses. And we actually know what to do. We just (mostly) haven’t done it since 2017.
Fig 5 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show increases in home insurance costs by risk quintile in California. The hard truth is that if we burn down more houses, insurance is going to cost more. A lot more. Those costs are disproportionately borne by residents in high fire risk areas.
November 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Fig 5 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show increases in home insurance costs by risk quintile in California. The hard truth is that if we burn down more houses, insurance is going to cost more. A lot more. Those costs are disproportionately borne by residents in high fire risk areas.
Reposted by Michael Wara
Fig 2 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show smoke days by county in California on average over the past decade and for 2024. There is no future without wildfire smoke. The future CAN be one where we accept the reality of smoke EMISSIONS but actively manage the harms from smoke EXPOSURE.
November 5, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Fig 2 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show smoke days by county in California on average over the past decade and for 2024. There is no future without wildfire smoke. The future CAN be one where we accept the reality of smoke EMISSIONS but actively manage the harms from smoke EXPOSURE.
Reposted by Michael Wara
Fig 3 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show structure loss over the past decade. We are lost more than 2000 homes per year in 5 of the last 10 years. That's too many houses burning down. We MUST do better if we want to have affordable electricity, affordable insurance, and affordable housing.
November 7, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Fig 3 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show structure loss over the past decade. We are lost more than 2000 homes per year in 5 of the last 10 years. That's too many houses burning down. We MUST do better if we want to have affordable electricity, affordable insurance, and affordable housing.
On average over the past decade, we have lost 8000 homes per year. That's about 7% of the new housing built per year in California.
November 7, 2025 at 5:54 AM
On average over the past decade, we have lost 8000 homes per year. That's about 7% of the new housing built per year in California.
Fig 3 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show structure loss over the past decade. We are lost more than 2000 homes per year in 5 of the last 10 years. That's too many houses burning down. We MUST do better if we want to have affordable electricity, affordable insurance, and affordable housing.
November 7, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Fig 3 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show structure loss over the past decade. We are lost more than 2000 homes per year in 5 of the last 10 years. That's too many houses burning down. We MUST do better if we want to have affordable electricity, affordable insurance, and affordable housing.
Fig 2 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show smoke days by county in California on average over the past decade and for 2024. There is no future without wildfire smoke. The future CAN be one where we accept the reality of smoke EMISSIONS but actively manage the harms from smoke EXPOSURE.
November 5, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Fig 2 from our Year in Fire report. Here we show smoke days by county in California on average over the past decade and for 2024. There is no future without wildfire smoke. The future CAN be one where we accept the reality of smoke EMISSIONS but actively manage the harms from smoke EXPOSURE.
100%. We want to ultimately differentiate management that produces the good (acres) outcome.
November 4, 2025 at 8:28 PM
100%. We want to ultimately differentiate management that produces the good (acres) outcome.