Gulf Rebuilding Plans: Mix and Match

Political parties see the Gulf as a lab for their policy ideas. There's room for many of them, but not all, writes the CSM on their editorial pages.

1 minute read

October 13, 2005, 1:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"The Gulf Coast has become a giant petri dish ...for Democrats and Republicans who view it as a vast policy lab to test their ideas about community rebuilding.

...While they dream of rebuilding plans, policymakers should consider how they might discourage building in vulnerable coastal areas. One place to look: the federal flood insurance program. About a quarter of the program's losses come from properties damaged multiple times. The program needs new rules to reduce the financial incentive for unwise building in flood-prone areas."

Thursday, October 13, 2005 in The Christian Science Monitor

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