To a state legislator: support climate resilience and insurance reform

Personalize with specific local effects. If you live in a hurricane, wildfire, or flood zone where insurers have withdrawn or premiums have spiked, name your situation. State legislators read constituent mail more carefully than most federal offices, and specific local examples carry weight.

Dear [Senator/Representative] [Last Name],

I’m writing as a resident of [city/town] to ask you to support legislation addressing the climate-driven insurance crisis and the broader resilience challenges facing [state name].

Major insurers are withdrawing from offering homeowners coverage in California wildfire zones, Florida hurricane corridors, Louisiana flood zones, and an expanding list of other climate-exposed regions. Where insurance is still available, premiums have risen sharply — annual increases of 30-50% have been common in high-risk zones. The risk is being transferred to state-backed insurers of last resort, to the federal flood insurance program, and to homeowners themselves through deductibles, exclusions, and coverage gaps.

[Personalize: describe your specific exposure if applicable. Examples: “My homeowner’s policy was non-renewed last year and I’ve been on the [state] FAIR Plan since”; “Our annual premium has risen [amount or percentage] over the past three years”; “Our [neighborhood/town] has [specific exposure pattern]”. If you’re not directly affected, you can substitute concern about local effects: “My [neighbors/community/region] face [specific pattern]”.]

Several state-level reforms would meaningfully address the situation:

1. Insurance market reforms that allow insurers to use forward-looking catastrophe modeling in rate-setting, paired with anti-redlining provisions that require insurers writing in low-risk zones to also write in higher-risk zones in proportion to their statewide market share.

2. Building code modernization for climate resilience, particularly in new construction. The state-level Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule provides a measurable framework.

3. State catastrophe-pool funding to ensure that state insurers of last resort are adequately capitalized and can manage the increased exposure they’re absorbing.

4. Managed retreat programs for repeatedly damaged properties, with structured buyouts that don’t depend on the federal-flood-insurance dynamic.

5. Climate disclosure for major property purchases that gives buyers meaningful information about climate-related risk before they commit to long-term financial exposure.

I understand insurance regulation is technical and politically complicated. I’m asking you to engage with it seriously because the alternative — continued private-market withdrawal, growing state-pool exposure, and homeowners absorbing risk individually — produces worse outcomes for everyone.

I’d appreciate knowing your position on specific bills under consideration in [state legislature].

Thank you for your service.

Sincerely,

[Your name] [Your address]