"Climate change not just about polar bears," Sen. Whitehouse warns
Rising water levels and more frequent and intense storms are threatening to swamp property values and cause a mortgage crisis in Florida and other coastal states, says Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
In remarks at a roundtable discussion over the weekend, Whitehouse said spiking property insurance rates could wreak havoc with Florida's property values and cause a mortgage crisis.
Whitehouse, chairof the Senate Budget Committee, has been warning that the effects of climate change could have dire consequences for the nation's economy, referring to "climate warnings that now predict climate-related damage in the trillions of dollarstrillions of dollars."
"A full third of our national debt already comes from economic shocks like COVID and the 2008 mortgage meltdown. I have been using the Budget Committee to spotlight warnings that the next big economic shock will be caused by climate change," Whitehouse said in a recent Senate speech. "Climate change is not just about polar bears or green jobs. It is about economic storm warnings to which we had better start paying attention."
Whitehouse and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) toured Florida prior to the roundtable, visiting areas devastated by recent storms and hearing stories of residents who have been unable to find homeowners insurance or unable to pay skyrocketing premiums.
Castor said the evidence of climate change is everywhere. The days are hotter, the summers are longer. Often times during the summer, we dont cool off anymore, get below 80 degrees at night.
Florida is worst and first in what climate change is doing to property insurance rates, but Im from Rhode Island I know a preview of coming attractions when I see one. This is coming to all coastal areas of the United States," Whitehouse told reporters after the roundtable in Shore Acres, a low-lying section of northeast St. Petersburg that sees excessive flooding when even normal rains hit the Tampa Bay area.
Whitehouse said that government has to start dealing with climate change more seriously.
Getting it right in Florida really matters, and the number one lesson is you cant solve your property insurance problem unless you solve the climate problem. And so, when government is in denial about the climate problem, theyre hurting you, and we need to correct that.
Whitehouse's comments were perhaps a barb at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who four months agosigned legislation that erased the words climate change from the Florida Statutes and restructured the states fossil fuel-based energy policy to remove references to climate change as a priority when making energy policy decisions.
DeSantis has supported programs to make Florida more resilient to the effects of climate change, with funding into the billions of dollars to contend with sea level rise and coastal flooding, said Susan Glickman of the CLEO Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing global warming. But she said the states effort is inadequate to the problem, using a metaphor of a sink overflowing with water, according to Florida Phoenix, a regional publication.
Its the equivalent of walking into your bathroom, Glickkmansaid. You grab the towels off the hook. You mop the floor up, and you never turn off that faucet. Similar, to Gov. DeSantis credit, they have given out $2.5 billion or more in towels, and were doing vulnerability assessments. But there is no turning that faucet off, and that is because of the outsized influence primarily of the investor-owned utilities [which] cover 75% of the state.
Floridagets 75% of its energy from natural gas.
Photo Credit: Consumer Affairs News Department Images
Posted: 2024-09-17 17:44:59
