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3/13/2026
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Bills would address connection between fossil fuel industry and rising insurance costs
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 STATE HOUSE – Representatives June S. Speakman, Terri Cortvriend and Jennifer Boylan have introduced a package of legislation to address the connection between rising insurance costs and the fossil fuels that cause the damage resulting in them.
The bills establish ways for insurers and individuals to hold petroleum companies liable for property damage caused by climate-related disasters and encourage insurers to pursue such claims, and require major insurers to cease profiting from underwriting and investing in companies that have caused climate change.
The first bill (2026-H 7752), sponsored by Representative Cortvriend, creates a legal cause of action for individuals or insurers to sue to recover losses resulting from climate disasters from entities that extracted, produced, refined, marketed or sold fossil fuel products and engaged in misleading, deceptive or false statements or omissions regarding the climate impacts of those products and whose conduct is shown to have substantially contributed to climate-attributable harm in Rhode Island.
“There’s ample evidence of the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to hide what they knew about the climate change their products cause so they could continue making tremendous profits. And today ordinary Rhode Islanders are the ones shouldering the costs of their mess in the form of outrageous insurance premiums. Of course insurers and individuals should be able to hold them accountable for the damage they’ve caused, and doing so would take the pressure off insurance premiums,” said Representative Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown).
Representative Speakman has introduced a resolution (2026-H 7340) to encourage insurers to pursue subrogation claims against companies that caused climate change and hid their contributions to it. This is a proven strategy that has worked to hold the tobacco and opioid industries accountable for the colossal damage they’ve caused and tried to hide for the sake of profit.
“Insurers should be pursing the fossil fuel industry on their own behalf and on behalf of their policyholders because they are paying out billions for property damage resulting from that industry’s deceit and negligence. They have the resources to calculate the damages and to pursue these suits, and winning them would provide resources to stem the tide of rising premiums,” said Representative Speakman (D-Dist. 68, Warren, Bristol).
The Rhode Island Insurance Market Protection Act (2026-H 8219), sponsored by Representative Boylan (D-Dist. 66, Barrington, East Providence), would require major insurers to phase out investments in, and insurance for, fossil fuel projects over the next 10 years, with reporting requirements and penalties for noncompliance.
“Insurers blame the climate crisis for rising costs to their customers, and yet they are still profiting from fossil fuel companies. They can’t have it both ways. They ought to be firmly on the side of the people they insure, who shouldn’t be left holding the bag for the damages caused by those companies. They won’t pursue damages from fossil fuel companies if they have an interest in the profit of those companies,” said Representative Boylan.
Her bill has the support of Public Citizen’s Climate Program and Americans for Financial Reform.
“Major insurance companies have cited the climate crisis repeatedly for the reason they want to raise rates on homeowners, yet the companies continue to invest in, and profit from, the fossil fuel industry,” said Rick Morris, insurance campaigner with Public Citizen’s Climate Program. “This proposal will protect consumers across Rhode Island and will begin to put a stop to insurer-funded climate change.”
“Home insurance companies are raising their premiums with no end in sight, forcing families to fund the insurance-climate doom loop at a time when most are struggling to make ends meet,” said Annie Norman, associate campaign director with Americans for Financial Reform. “Insurers claim to be climate victims, while investing in and profiting from fossil fuels, and end up forcing their policyholders to fund the very forces that are destroying their homes in the first place. It has to stop.”
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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