Declarations

“We’re seeing total losses. We’re going out there and there’s really nothing to see. We’re maybe measuring the perimeter of a building trying to figure out a little bit what the structure looked like, if there’s any personal property left — that kind of thing.”

— Thomas Carstens, vice president, U.S. property/casualty for Crawford, speaking about assessing properties damaged by January’s Los Angeles County wildfires. At the end of January, preliminary data show insurance companies had already paid out more than $4 billion for losses from the biggest two of the Los Angeles-area wildfires that swept through the region and destroyed tens of thousands of homes. Insured loss estimates currently range from $8 to $20 billion.

“We’re determined not to be left behind.”

— Plug Zen CEO Q Johnson in response to the new federal administration’s pushback against electric vehicles. Johnson’s Detroit-based company focuses on EV charging capabilities for companies that have fleets of cars and trucks. Johnson said he’s taking a “wait and see” approach,” but that he regularly works with people in the Michigan EV industry, and said he doesn’t expect them to dramatically change direction.

“There’s no consistency. We’re talking about an industry that’s incredibly diverse, hundreds and hundreds of companies in the U.S. alone that are engaged in oil and gas development. Each one may have a different voluntary program (to reduce methane emissions) that they’re implementing with different technologies, and so it’s really hard to have an apples-to-apples comparison.”

— Jon Goldstein, vice president of energy transition at the Environmental Defense Fund in response to various reports citing lower methane levels released from certain oil and gas equipment and oil wells in 2023.

“If we don’t have projects in the pipe, our contractors will leave. They’ve said it out loud. And if they leave, honestly, with eastern recovery, we will not have the ability to put it back together.”

— North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency leader Pryor Gibson describing ongoing struggles with retaining a reliable base of contractors due to a lack of funds. Gibson called the situation a “double jeopardy” that could only be solved by “dependable money” rather than piecemeal funding from the legislature. The state is still struggling to recover from the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene in September 2024.

“You definitely are bringing your A-game when you fly in and out of Reagan.”

— Former long-time commercial airline pilot Kathleen Bangs. Pilots who fly in and out of Washington D.C.’s Reagan Washington International Airport have long said the congested airspace can be challenging and even dangerous to maneuver. In January, the airport was the site of a collision between a commercial aircraft and military helicopter that resulted in 67 deaths.

“If you’re allowing the polluter to determine how the cleanup and the notification is done, you’re bound to run into some problems. It is essential that the state has the authority to regulate these types of releases and these types of facilities, because we can’t expect them to hold themselves accountable.”

— Zachary Ogaz, general counsel for the New Mexico Environment Department. The state is in an ongoing battle regarding environmental clean-up of per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from Cannon Air Force Base. A separate battle over Cannon’s culpability is a bellwether case in national litigation over the federal government’s liability.