Boston Agonizes Over How to Protect Itself From Future Storms
R.J. Lehmann, a senior fellow at the free-market think tank R Street Institute, says the nation needs to be careful about starting to spend money to protect against sea-level rise, because the costs might be too high.
Spending for mitigation and improved infrastructure “has to be done on a cost-benefit basis,” he says, “and there will be places where the costs exceed the benefits. And where that happens, we might lose some communities.” Buyouts of property owners, he says, “are part of the future.”
