Posted: 26 Jun 2012 04:04 AM PDT
With
the Senate set to vote today on fixes to the ailing National Flood
Insurance Program (NFIP), a new C2ES brief explains why the program is
chronically in debt to the U.S. Treasury, and how to make it solvent. We
urge, among other things, that Congress allow federal underwriters to
begin taking into account rising flood risk due to climate change.The
44-year-old federally-backed NFIP covers 5.6 million American households
and more than $1 trillion in assets in flood-prone areas along rivers
and coasts. Flooding is not an easy risk to insure, so historically
private insurers chose not to. But in assuming that role, the NFIP has
at times served to encourage rather than contain risk, and has racked up
$18 billion in debt in the process.
Michele Kearney's Environmental Blog - Environmental degradation and waning natural resources including energy resources threaten U.S. security. And the loss of renewable natural resources, including forests, fresh water, fish and fertile soils, can drive political instability and conflict in the developing world, and around the globe. In short, natural resoures, energy and the environment are national security issues.
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