The White House plans to rescind an Obama-era flood rule that new infrastructure projects receiving federal funding be built to withstand rising sea levels and fierce rain storms, Reuters reports.
Severe flooding in the United States has become increasingly dangerous and costly; 90 percent of natural disasters in the U.S. involve major floods, with damages topping $10 billion a year. As a result, in 2015, President Barack Obama issued an executive order proposing the new Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, which required federally funded projects in flood plains to consider climate change data and build structures above the 100-year or the 500-year flood elevation.
Trump, who has criticized all Obama-era climate regulations as a hindrance to U.S. business interests, is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday rescinding the 2015 standard.
The rule would require higher upfront construction costs, but it would also save lives; flooding causes more deaths in the U.S. than any other type of natural disaster. And it’s clear that Trump is concerned about rising sea level when its his own property under threat. In May, Politico reported that the president filed for a permit to build a sea wall to protect one of his seaside golf resorts in Ireland from coastal erosion due to climate change-induced sea level rise and storms.
