Sunday, August 2, 2015

Flood Insurance: An End to Subsidies



The bad news is: According to the National Academy of Sciences, today, rates are subsidized for one-fifth of the National Flood Insurance Program's 5.5 million policies. However, the NFIP believes that most of these structures are below the base flood elevation.
The good news is: Subsidies must be phased out to comply with the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 and subsequent legislation.
This, however, raises the larger question regarding how to fairly share the burden of adapting to climate change. Certainly, with higher premiums, those who knew the risk when they built are only (at long last) getting what they deserve. But what of those who built under a different set of assumptions, before climate change was a threat, or before we understood the full impact?  

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