… (T)he Los Angeles wildfires – likely to be one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history – have exposed festering regulatory hurdles that have exacerbated the crisis. Many are years in the making, maddeningly complex and not given to quick solutions. It’s a confluence of bad policy involving brush clearance, water, insurance, firefighting, housing and climate change. Simply put, California has created a tangled web of regulation that renders this once-innovative state incapable of accomplishing anything efficiently.
–Written by Steven Greenhut, Western region director for the R Street Institute and a member of the Southern California News Group editorial board