From ClimateRealism

By Linnea Lueken

A recent article at the Chicago Sun Times (CST) claims that “Climate change is fueling a surge in Illinois home insurance premiums,” via increases in severe weather. This is false. Severe weather is not getting worse in Illinois, so it cannot be the driver for insurance costs. Other factors, like increasing home values and inflation, are driving insurance rates higher.

The article is sponsored by the environment focused media group Grist, so there is already an incentive to inflate the climate angle and downplay the more important reasons why insurance costs are rising in already-expensive Illinois. Those other reasons are mentioned briefly in the post, “the value of a home, the cost of the materials needed to rebuild it, and even the credit scores of the homeowner,” all impact insurance costs, but the CST insists that really climate change is the main problem.

The CST post says that “Illinois home insurance premiums are going up, and climate change-powered severe weather is in part to blame.” Later in the article it specifies hail and flooding as specific weather events that are damaging homes in the state.

The flooding issue is addressed within the article itself, with the CST writer saying that neighborhood developers “are also building homes in flood-prone areas, adding to rising premiums.”

Right, if a home is built in an area that FEMA has already designated as a flood zone, insurance costs will be higher. That is not the fault of climate change, it is the fault of developers and the people who are willing to take the risk and buy those homes. Flood zones change naturally over time, it has nothing to do with climate change.

The other major extreme weather the post points towards, hail storms, are most definitely not getting worse according to weather data.

As discussed in a previous Climate Realism post on the issue of hail in Illinois, weather data shows that hail occurrence has actually been declining on average since highs around 2006, but overall show no long term trend at all. (See figure below)

Despite the available weather data showing that extreme weather is not getting worse, CST says that State Farm and Allstate “pointed to extreme weather as driving up costs.”

Rising insured losses are not evidence that extreme weather is getting worse, but they are reflective of the fact that home values are getting higher, and that inflation which impacts the cost of the homes themselves as well as all the materials needed to make repairs after damage is done, is also rising.

It is convenient for insurance companies and state governments to blame climate change, a nebulous thing outside their control, for hikes in premiums. Climate Realism has posted dozens of posts showing why climate change is not responsible for rising insurance rates or dropped coverage in various parts of the country, and Illinois is no exception.

The Chicago Sun Times allied with Grist to promote climate alarmism at the expense of truth, and in the process shielded insurance companies from blowback for rising insurance rates and urban planners for allowing building in unsuitable areas. In a roundabout way CST and Grist blame the residents of Illinois for their own suffering. If only people would stop driving cars that use gasoline and diesel, and stop demanding reliable electricity as provided by coal, natural gas, and nuclear, then maybe insurance wouldn’t be so high! It is simple fearmongering in order to coerce people into supporting climate restrictions that Grist and other activists have long pushed for.