From Insurance Journal:

“The NFIP is a textbook example of unintended consequences,” said Raymond J. Lehmann, director of Finance, Insurance and Trade Policy for the think tank R Street Institute. “While the program has provided incentives for mitigation, these have not gone far enough, and the availability of cheap flood insurance has played a role encouraging people to build in flood-prone regions.”

R Street’s Lehmann asked lawmakers to consider an additional idea to lessen the likelihood of development in flood-prone areas, which he noted will only make matters more difficult in future years as people need to be relocated as a result of sea level rise and climate change.

“Over the next century, we may be forced to contemplate relocating potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans to higher ground, should the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s projections prove accurate,” he said. “As a first step, it is critical that Congress reverse any federal policy that actively encourages Americans to move into harm’s way.”

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