Trump signs order to end Obama-era flood risk building standards

Desdemona Despair

By Pam Wright
15 August 2017

(The Weather Channel) – President Donald Trump revoked an Obama-era executive order that required strict building standards for all federal building projects to reduce the risk from increased sea level rise flooding.

Trump signed the executive order Tuesday to end the Obama standards in order to “streamline the current process” for infrastructure projects, a government official told the news agency.

“The potential move comes as the [Trump] administration is proposing a $1 trillion build-out of roads, bridges and other infrastructure over 10 years,” Climatewire wrote of the rumors in March. “Combined with the termination of the federal flood risk management standard, signed by former President Obama in 2015, the construction boom could result in new roads that are susceptible to flood damage and taxpayer losses, some experts say.”

The order will not keep state and local agencies from using a more stringent standard should they choose to do so.

The Obama-era standards required public structures such as subsidized housing and water treatment plants to be built at least 2 feet above the 100-year flood standard, the Washington Post noted. Other more critical structures, like hospitals, were required to be built 3 feet above that line.

Obama signed the order the same week that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a post-Sandy report examining flood risks for some 31,000 miles of the North Atlantic coastline, finding that the “flood risk is increasing for coastal populations and supporting infrastructure.” [more]

Trump Signs Order to End Obama-Era Flood Risk Building Standards