California insurance commissioner pushes for green car insurance option - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner saidWednesday he’s planning to make a new greenb automobile insurance option, known as available to California drivers as earl y as the fall of next year by proposinh new regulations that will make the new option Poizner, a Republican, describeed this as a way for consumers to “morde accurately” pay for the coverage they by linking their auto premiums more closely with the number of miles they actually drive. By encouraging consumerse to drivefewer miles, and thus reducing theit insurance costs, the new insurance option could help reduce both greenhousw gases and vehicle accidents.
“As a strong advocate of healthy market competition and a healthy Poizner added, “I am especially pleased to encourage this kind of innovation and additional options for consumers.” The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that if 30 percen of Golden State drivers participate in this new form of voluntar coverage, the state could avoid 55 milliojn tons of carbon dioxide betweehn 2009 and 2020 -- the equivalenyt of taking 10 million cars off the road. This woulde save an estimated 5.5 billionh gallons of gas and $40 billiomn dollars in car-related expenses.
And the has recommendecd the adoption of this mechanism as a way to meet future climate change gasreductionb targets, according to California insurance regulators. Current regulations requirde that auto insurance rates are baseed on estimatedannual mileage. The new regs woulds provide an additional optionm foractual mileage, or pay-as-you-drive allowing insurers to offer the voluntary optionb to consumers. As a result, consumers coulc verify mileage byodometer readings, automotivse repair records or a technological device used to collectg mileage data.
But they explicitly prohibit insurancde companies from forcing policyholders to participat ina pay-as-you-drive program, or for insurerw to use global positioninfg devices to track consumers’ driving habits, out of privac y concerns. “A major priority for the Department of Insurances is harnessing this technology to benefit said Poizner. “At the same time, it is vital that the privac y of driversremains intact. I will not approves any auto insurance policy that aims to utilize GPS devicesd in order to obtain location data from Public input into the proposed new regulationes is encouraged underCalifornia law, the DOI said.
Aftedr that process is completed, the regulations will take effect, probablyt by next fall. “Insurers will then be able to appluy to offer this product in according tothe commissioner’s office.