Morning Jolt: How Policy Decisions Exacerbated the Devastating Los Angeles Wildfires

TODAY'S JOLT IS SPONSORED BY
PUTNAM BOOKS

WITH JIM GERAGHTY

January 10 2025

How Policy Decisions Exacerbated the Devastating Los Angeles Wildfires

On the menu today: As noted in Wednesday's edition of this newsletter, the combination of intense Santa Ana winds and an ongoing drought ensured that Los Angeles County was destined to face an unprecedented wildfire risk. There is no policy, at the federal, state, or local level that can eliminate the threat of wildfires. But policy choices can mitigate or exacerbate those risks and the consequences of those fires, and unfortunately, the bad decisions of Southern California have piled up, year by year, decade by decade. Today's newsletter takes a deep dive into those policy decisions.

As of this writing, at least ten are dead from the fires, 10,000 buildings are feared destroyed, and at least 400,000 Angelenos are under evacuation orders or evacuation warnings. No policy decision could have prevented the entirety of the disaster. But different ones could have altered the outcome, at least at the margins.

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