Tag Archives: flooding

Federal Government, Regulation and Risks

EPA’s Climate Change Adaption Plan

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The Environmental Protection Agency has released their plans to reduce human greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the effects of climate change. The EPA Sustainability Plan and Climate Change Adaptation Plan coincides with President Obama’s 2009 Executive Order on Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance, which set aggressive energy, climate and environmental targets for agencies, and detail how.

In the Climate Change Adaptation Plan, the EPA identifies priority actions the agency will take to incorporate considerations of climate change into its programs, policies, rules and operations to ensure they are effective under future climatic conditions. This includes:

  • Incorporating climate adaptation criteria in the Brownfields grants process to ensure cleanup actions taken by communities are effective as the climate changes.
  • Integrating considerations of climate change into the Clean Water State Revolving Funds process and continue working with states to ensure investments in water infrastructure are resilient to changes in climate.

For example, a stormwater calculator and climate adaptation tool empowers community planners to estimate the amount of stormwater runoff.

Up to this point, the aggressive regulations of the EPA have:

  • Reduced the federal government’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 17 percent since 2008.
  • Exceeded the 24 percent energy intensity reduction from its 2003 baseline.
  • Reduced 2013 energy intensity by 25.6 percent from 2003.
  • Reduced fleet petroleum use by 38.9 percent compared to the 2005 baseline.

Federal regulations, in general, and specifically by the EPA may have good intentions, but inevitability do much more harm than good. Many examples of how these types of regulations do great harm are already well published. We can only assume that further action by the federal/state/local governments will only do more damage.

Global Warming

Calming Fears of Climate Change in Asia

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Many climate studies have focused on South and Southeast Asia, as the region is considered uniquely vulnerable to the projected effects of climate change such as a reduction in crop yields, rising sea levels, flooding, a loss of biodiversity and drought. Many of these Asian countries are islands or are on peninsulas, with highly populated coastal cities; if climate change predictions come true, these countries would be highly vulnerable.

The five cities deemed at the most “extreme risk” for climate change by global risk analysis company Maplecroft are Dhaka, Mumbai, Kolkata, Manila and Bangkok — all of which are in South or Southeast Asia. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global warming poses a special risk to these two regions.

But while climate change alarmists have suggested that higher temperatures will increase food insecurity in Asia, food production has been increasing for the last half-century:

  • Since the 1990s, food production in Southeast Asia has increased substantially.
  • South Asia has kept a stable supply of arable land, and the amount of arable land in Southeast Asia has increased.
  • In fact, according to agronomist Craig Idso, increased levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has increased, not decreased, plant production.

Similarly, while many have raised concerns about sea level rise, there is no consensus on the amount of rise. According to the World Bank, were the sea level to rise by one meter, just 1 to 2 percent of land area, population and farmland in developing countries would be affected, and GDP would fall by 0.5 percent to 2 percent.

Mitigation seeks to combat climate change by embarking upon new projects or instituting measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to curb climate change. Adaptation, on the other hand, consists of strategies to deal with the effects of global warming, such as rehabilitating coral, engaging in water resource management and protecting wildlife.

As climate science is so uncertain and unsettled, adaptation is the more cost-effective approach to climate change.

Tanner Davis is a research associate at the National Center for Policy Analyis.

Global Warming, Property Issues

Emiminate Insurers of Last Resort

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The reaction to Superstorm Sandy’s $65 billion in damage has been the predictable doom and gloom about climate change and rising sea levels. But instead of implementing draconian restrictions, we can prevent loss of life and property by eliminating insurance of last resort.

Extreme weather is nothing new. Paris was flooded on a regular basis by the Seine River until Napoleon III built walls for flood prevention. But while it was logical for earlier generations to live on higher ground away from major bodies of water, it now seems logical to us to build as close to the ocean as possible. Boston, New York City and much of the population in the state of Florida is flood prone. Between 1970 and 2000, East Coast areas grew in population. When four hurricanes hit Florida in 2004 and Superstorm Sandy hit the northeast in 2012, many people incurred major property losses.

Insurance companies made poor decisions to cover some of these properties. But most companies have adjusted their portfolio. Yet instead of letting the market work and forcing folks who rebuild homes on barrier islands to go without coverage, many states stepped into the game by providing insurance of last resort. Premiums for these policies are offered below market rate with taxpayers subsidizing the difference. For example in Miami-Dade County, FL the insurance premium on a $150,000 house with Citizens (the Florida insurer of last resort) costs $4,600. With a traditional insurance company the premium is $10,000. Worse, some states actually encouraged the private sector to dump questionable policies into the last resort pool.

If private insurers cannot provide insurance to certain coastal location, this is a signal that building a home in this location is a poor decision. And if one of these homes is going to get damaged by the next storm, it is not a good policy decision to encourage folks to live there. If the private sector cannot provide insurance to folks building new homes, the government should not provide it either. Current homeowners can be transferred over time to the private market, assuming they do not get hit by multiple storms. Potential owners can still build in hurricane prone areas, but taxpayers should not bail them out when the inevitable next storm strikes.