DeSantis signs bills to fight flooding, sea-level rise - South Florida Sun-Sentinel sun-sentinel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sun-sentinel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Gordon Byrd
May 12, 2021
TARPON SPRINGS Governor DeSantis made an appearance at a Tarpon Springs restaurant today to sign a flood mitigation bill and also had a lot to say about the gas pipeline situation, worker shortages and Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.
DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1954, designed to improve flood protection and issues related to sea level rise. It establishes the Resilient Florida Grant Program, in which the Department of Environmental Protection will hand out grants to local communities for flood and sea level mitigation. It also creates the Florida Flood Hub for Applied Research at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
The seas are inexorably rising, and the Florida Legislature is tackling this by creating a Resilient Florida Grant Program in the Department of Environmental Protection. The bill creating the program, Senate Bill 1954, passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis should sign it.
At stake are millions of dollars for sea walls, storm hardening and other infrastructure projects that will better prepare us to tackle a future in which we endure increased flooding, stronger storms and higher seas.
The program handles resiliency infrastructure in a traditional Republican manner by doling out block grants to cities and counties, subject to state appropriations. Democrats wonât like how the Legislature has chosen to fund these grants â by making permanent its annual tradition of raiding the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, sending much of the money set aside for housing to instead address the effects of climate change.
Florida Bill Addresses Sea Level Rise — But Not the Emissions Causing It wuft.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wuft.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Spending on climate resiliency is needed
South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board
The seas are inexorably rising, and the Florida Legislature is tackling this by creating a Resilient Florida Grant Program in the Department of Environmental Protection. The bill creating the program, Senate Bill 1954, passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis should sign it.
At stake are millions of dollars for sea walls, storm hardening and other infrastructure projects that will better prepare us to tackle a future in which we endure increased flooding, stronger storms and higher seas.
The program handles resiliency infrastructure in a traditional Republican manner by doling out block grants to cities and counties, subject to state appropriations. Democrats won’t like how the Legislature has chosen to fund these grants by making permanent its annual tradition of raiding the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, sending much of the money set aside for housing to i