ADAPTATION: Republicans open to working on climate resilience
“It’s a mom-and-apple-pie issue. How could anybody say, ‘It’s a bad idea to make people safer against extreme weather’?” said Eli Lehrer, president of the R Street Institute, a libertarian think tank. Focus on economics, not climate Past and current systems to mitigate against extreme climate events aren’t particularly ideological or controversial, said Lehrer. These include measures like the Stafford Act, which gives the Federal Emergency Management Agency responsibility for coordinating governmentwide relief efforts. Preparing oceanfront communities before the storm hits, said Lehrer, is also smart spending. This includes property-level measures like installing storm shutters; structural mitigation like building levees; and nonstructural measures like preserving wetlands to absorb sea surges. In combination, these methods have gotten near-universal acceptance on both sides of the aisle, said Lehrer. The White House could benefit from playing up the fiscal merits of its initiatives, Lehrer believes. Some of Obama’s efforts, like a floodplain management standard, are being undersold on their economic impacts and oversold on their climate change significance, Lehrer said. And where Republicans are concerned, spending is a big issue.
