Ian is a warning about growth at any cost.

People forced to rebuild their lives face a combo of soaring insurance premiums, construction costs & interest rates. Many homes lacked flood insurance.

This recovery might look different from past disasters.
politico.com/news/2022/09/3… Lack of flood insurance will make rebuilding more costly. While Floridians are more insured than any other state against deluges, just 18%of homeowners have coverage through the federally run flood insurance program. Those federal policies also only cover up to $250k in damage.

Ian nears a Cat 5.

The Tampa region is one of the coast’s most vulnerable areas: it’s low-lying & densely populated. 24% of ppl live in the floodplain.

The danger has been well-known for decades. Development continued apace.

This could be devastating.

politico.com/news/2022/09/2… It’s not as if people didn’t know the risk.

Hillsborough County, where Tampa sits, has a more than decade-old post-disaster redevelopment plan that calls for steering building away from places that climate change is making unsuitable for living.

Lots of climate stuff in the bipartisan infrastructure bill, even if it’s less than what environmental groups and the broader Democratic caucus wanted.

Here’s a thread of some items… (1/X) $2.6b for NOAA research:

$492m for ocean/coastal security

$491m for Great Lakes

$492m for flood and inundation mapping /forecasting (coastal and inland)

$50m for wildfire forecasting

$200m for marine debris

$100m for improving coastal, ocean & Great Lakes observations

Biden's budget would deliver a huge boost to climate spending -- $36 billion-worth, a $14 billion increase over 2021 levels.

I broke it down here for Pros:

bit.ly/3upMsQA Of note for FY22:

$3.7b in clean energy incentives, including $$ for existing nuclear

$1.1b for energy efficiency incentives

End $3.5b oil/gas incentives & change foreign oil/gas taxation to bring in $4.2b more

30% >for clean energy research, including $5b for new demo office

SCOOP here on what's become a sort of common pattern -- an oil & gas industry group secretly funded the PR push for a Wyoming taxpayer-backed study that said a federal drilling pause would cost states billions.

bit.ly/3cijGMj w/ @ItsDocumented @ItsDocumented When Biden rolls out his expected pause on new federal oil and gas leasing, I guarantee you'll hear this study referenced by opponents. It will probably get into media coverage.

And industry quietly financed the talking points, PR push and other materials you'll likely hear.