Nevada
High auto insurance rates expected to continue to climb in Nevada
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Many in the Las Vegas Valley have seen their car insurance rates increase in recent months.
UNLV employee and car insurance customer Marde Closson says her auto insurance costs have gone up close to $100 per month.
“I think it’s ridiculous because my insurance company hasn’t had to pay out anything for me and my driving,” Closson says.
In order to raise rates here, auto insurance companies must first get approval from the Nevada Division of Insurance.
On Monday, the state approved what is slated to be a 16% (on average) rate increase for over 470,000 State Farm customers in the state, which will go into effect on May 6.
Later this month, rates for thousands of Farmers Insurance auto customers are slated to go up nearly 20%.
The driver, as with so many economic changes since the pandemic, is caused by multiple factors.
First, car insurance is expensive anyway here in Southern Nevada, partly because the roads are so crowded.
Many workers commute for second or third shift jobs, which means there are always cars on the roadways.
Also, automobile thefts are up. Partly due to social media trends that made it trendy to steal certain makes and models, auto thefts are up over 30% from last year to
this year, according to Metro Police.
But there are other factors — supply chain issues with auto parts, labor shortages within the repair industry, and medical claim cost increases.
In an email to Channel 13, Janet Ruiz of the Insurance Information Institute, says there are also more crashes in recent years.
“The cost of auto claims has soared since the pandemic began in 2020,” Ruiz says.
Nevada Insurance Commissioner Scott Kipper says it is possible that some of these market forces ease in the coming months, but he says that’s not likely to happen in the next 6-9 months.
He says, however, that there are some things car insurance customers can do to try to save some money.
“Make sure you have the right amount of coverage because sometimes you can have too much, especially as your automobile ages,” Kipper said. “Also, find out if you’re taking advantage of all of your available discounts. The third thing we tell people is just to shop around. There are over 100 carriers writing personal auto insurance lines in Nevada.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom won’t admit it, but a move by President Donald Trump is especially helpful to drivers in California — and Nevada.
Gasoline prices are pressuring consumers around the country. On Friday, the average U.S. price was $4.55 a gallon. In California, that would be a bargain. The average there was $6.16 a gallon. Nevada’s average was $5.23 a gallon, the result of around 88 percent of the state’s gasoline coming from California.
It might be getting worse — regardless of what happens in Iran.
In recent months, two major California refineries have shut down. That represented a 17 percent reduction in California’s refining capacity. Their closures weren’t caused by the Iran war, but by Gov. Newsom and California’s relentless attacks on fossil fuels.
To make up for the fuel it won’t extract or refine in-state, California depends on imports from foreign countries.
“We are importing 30 percent of our crude oil from the Middle East,” Mike Ariza, a former control board supervisor at the Valero Benicia Refinery, said in an interview. He has been warning the public about California’s potential fuel shortage. “There are not very many ships left on the way that have fuel,” he said last month.
Last week, KCRA-TV in Sacramento reported that “about 2 million barrels of oil are in the process of being unloaded in Long Beach off of the last California-bound tanker that got through the Strait of Hormuz.”
At a California legislative hearing Tuesday, Siva Gunda, the vice chairman of the California Energy Commission, said the state has enough gasoline to accommodate demand for the next six weeks. That’s not a very long time, especially given that it takes weeks or months for oil to travel from the Middle East to California. And that process won’t begin until the Strait of Hormuz reopens.
There is a region, however, with abundant oil available for sale and safe passage — the southeastern United States. Unfortunately, the Jones Act, an antiquated 1920 law, mandates that only U.S.-flagged ships may move cargo between U.S. ports. But only 55 of the more than 7,000 oil tankers worldwide comply with this requirement.
This is where Mr. Trump rode to the rescue. Late last month, the White House announced Mr. Trump would suspend the Jones Act for another 90 days. In March, he originally waived it for 60 days. This will make it easier for California and Nevada to obtain domestic product.
If only Mr. Trump could also suspend the destructive energy policies imposed by Gov. Newsom and California Democrats.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — An adoptable pet is in the spotlight for “Furever Home Friday,” with Amy from the Nevada SPCA featured in a segment highlighting an animal available for adoption today.
The Nevada SPCA encouraged viewers looking to add a pet to their family to consider adopting.
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