R Street responds to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report
WASHINGTON (Nov. 2, 2014) – Congress should heed today’s warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to pursue effective mitigation and adaptation strategies to counter the risks of a warming globe, starting with an immediate end to government subsidies that make the problem worse, the R Street Institute said.
As part of the 40th session of the United Nations’ IPCC this week in Copenhagen, Denmark, the panel adopted the final “synthesis” report of its Fifth Assessment Report. The first full-scale update to climate projections since 2007, the report reiterates scientific consensus that “human influence on the climate system is clear,” with ramifications for ecosystems and the food supply from rising seas and rising surface temperatures.
Rather than continue the politicized trench warfare that has paralyzed lawmakers, R Street outlines three crucial steps that Congress could take today to better prepare Americans for their climate future.
• Phase Out the National Flood Insurance Program: In 2012, Congress passed perhaps its most important piece of climate change legislation to date with the Biggert-Waters Act, which gradually phased out subsidies to properties in flood-prone areas. Alas, facing backlash over rising insurance costs, those same lawmakers gutted many of those same reforms earlier this year. The threat of more frequent and more damaging floods means there is no time to dither. Congress needs to phase out all flood insurance subsidies for all properties and set the stage to shift this risk entirely to the private sector.
• Expand the Coastal Barrier Resources Act: Signed into law by President Reagan just over 30 years ago, the CBRA withholds federal subsidies to development in a 1.3 million acre coastal zone, mostly along America’s Atlantic and Gulf coastlines and the Great Lakes. But much pre-existing development was grandfathered at the time of the bill’s passage, while other parcels have been carved out of the zone over the years. It’s time to reverse that trend and strengthen the law to ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t used to encourage development in areas most at risk from climate change.
• Enact Carbon Pricing Legislation to Preempt Proposed Onerous EPA Regulations: The EPA has proposed regulations to impose a 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2030. These regulations likely will impose enormous costs for relatively modest emissions reductions. Instead, Congress should embrace the power of the free market by utilizing revenue-neutral carbon pricing as a complete substitute for command-and-control regulation. Carbon pricing would allow states to achieve mandated emissions reductions through a price signal instead of complicated regulation, while utilizing all resulting revenue to eliminate or reduce taxes that are damaging to the economy.
The following R Street Experts are available for comment on the report:
Ian Adams, California Director – Adams has written about climate change and a carbon taxation program in publications like The Oregonian.
Christian Cámara, Florida Director – Cámara has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs about the Coastal Barrier Resource Act.
R.J. Lehmann, Senior Fellow – Lehmann has written extensively on the National Flood Insurance Program and why it should be privatized, including providing input during drafting of the Biggert-Waters Act in 2012.
Eli Lehrer, President – Lehrer has written on climate change and in favor of a carbon tax in conservative magazines like The Weekly Standard and National Review.
Lori Sanders, Outreach Director – Sanders has written a policy study on expanding the Coastal Barriers Resources Act and comments to the EPA on the proposed greenhouse gas regulations. She also recently took part in a panel discussion on the regulations.
To arrange to speak with any of the R Street climate change experts, please contact Nicole Roeberg at [email protected] or (202) 997-1186.
