Biden Grants Billions to FEMA for Storm Protection
One difference (of many) between the Biden administration and the Trump administration is Biden’s focus on climate change and, similarly, efforts to harden systems and improve storm protection. Exhibit A: the Biden administration recently earmarked a whopping $10 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) to protect against natural disasters before they strike.
How the Funds will be Used for Storm Protection
FEMA is planning to use the funds in a multitude of ways, including relocating homes out of flood-prone areas, building seawalls to reduce the impact of storm surges, and deploying advance-warning sensors for wildfire recovery. According to Daniel Kaniewski, a former deputy administrator at FEMA, the $10-million in funding “would dwarf all previous grant programs of its kind.”
From a budget-mechanics standpoint, the plan will reallocate funds earmarked for overall disaster spending to projects designed to protect against climate disasters. This and similar tactics will allow the moves to proceed without action from Congress, which is obviously a nice benefit.
As of the time of this writing, the FEMA plan still needs White House approval, but indications are that it should not be a problem. The proposed initiatives fall into a new and emerging category of emergency preparedness called climate adaptation, which is focused on protecting communities and citizens from the impact of climate change as opposed to mitigating the cause of climate change itself.
Clearly, the time is right to deploy better storm protection tactics, because many activities taking place in the U.S. are completely counter to what needs to be done. For example, in many coastal states, home construction is rapidly rising in areas most vulnerable to flooding. And the introduction of climate-change-mitigation codes in municipalities is happening much slower than anticipated.
I’m happy that FEMA and the federal government as a whole is using a 2-pillar approach to address climate change – reducing greenhouse gas emissions and taking steps to reduce the negative impact of climate-change-induced storms. Clearly, there is a long way to go, but this at least represents a decent start.
