Nearly 1/4 Of The Way Through 2020, And FL GOP Legislature Will Allow Sea Level Projections
Talk about not letting the seagrass grow under your feet!!
The Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill Thursday creating a sea level rise office and task force. That measure (SB 7016), written by the Senate Infrastructure and Security Committee and spearheaded by Chair Tom Lee, creates the Statewide Office of Resiliency and the Statewide Sea-Level Rise Task Force. The state’s Chief Resilience Officer (CRO), currently under the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), would oversee both bodies.
An Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection currently sits under DEP, but the new office would report directly to the Governor. The bill does not specify the new office’s role, but states that the task force will create sea-level rise baseline projections with assistance from DEP to be sent to that department’s Environmental Regulation Commission for approval.
Lee, a Spring Hills Republican Senator, noted Florida is likely the state most vulnerable to rising sea levels, and it could affect different parts of the state to differing degrees. Currently, the state has no official sea-level rise projections. “You can’t modify or adopt public policy in response to what the world’s going to look like in 30, 40 years if you don’t have a consensus view of what that is,” Lee told Senators.
A Senate staff analysis said a Southeast Florida work group dealing with climate-change issues has projected the region could see sea levels rise from 1 to nearly 3 feet over the next 40 years, while a Tampa Bay advisory panel estimates waters in that are could go up 1 to 2.5 feet in 30 years.
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https://floridapolitics.com/archives/321879-senate-advances-bill-to-create-sea-level-rise-projections