Expensive home insurance is only the symptom

Re: “Home insurance is harder to find,” Jan. 7 news story

This was a truly informative article addressing the stressful situations many Coloradan homeowners are now facing, but I ask, should we continue to adapt or do we find a solution? While the safety of Coloradans and their homes is important, instead of addressing only the immediate issue (wildfires) we should be tackling the root of the problem (climate change). Even if we all moved to low wildfire risk areas and created defensible space around our homes, we still won’t have solved the real problem.

A solution that will lessen wildfires in America by reducing emissions and tackling climate change through carbon fees can be found in the Energy Innovation and Climate Dividend Act, introduced in Congress in 2018. In recent years wildfires have devastated numerous communities throughout the U.S. Let’s put a stop to it by supporting this act and the advocacy group, Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Alison Roth, Denver Thank you so much for the lead article in Monday’s Denver Post. Insurance is indeed harder to find, and more expensive, as my husband and I discovered when voles chewed through the electrical lines outside our house.

We expected that at least some of the cost of fixing this would be covered by our insurance, but were told that our deductible had been changed to 1 percent of the value of our house because we lived in a “red zone,” which meant we were more susceptible to wildfires.

Our community, Red Rock Ranch, has been designated a Firewise community, and we have performed extensive fire mitigation on our acres. But that doesn’t make any difference to our State Farm insurance.

Until our state and our country take the threat of climate change seriously we will all be more at risk from damaging climate events such as wildfires. This is yet another reason to advance national climate legislation such as the proposed bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act just introduced in the House and Senate. We need climate action now. Is anyone in Washington listening? Susan Permut, Monument