Washington, DC - On Thursday the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will hear from insurance experts on how a riskier, warming would will affect their business and the costs to consider if we do not act to cut heat-trapping pollution. A recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report notes that insurers paid more than $320 billion in claims on weather-related losses from 1980 to 2005. Scientists predict that an unstable climate due to global warming will cause more severe and unpredictable weather events.

WHAT: “Economic Impacts of Global Warming: Part 1-Insurance”

WHERE: 2359 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC

WHEN: 9:30 AM, Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

WHO: Edward J. Markey, Chairman, Opening Statement

John B. Stephenson, Director of Natural Resources and Environment, GAO

Mike Kreidler, Washington State Insurance Commissioner

Frank Nutter, President, Reinsurance Association of America