Report: FEMA to withhold disaster-preparedness funds from states that don't plan for climate change

C’mon. This isn’t real, is it?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making it tougher for governors to deny man-made climate change. Starting next year, the agency will approve disaster-preparedness funds only for states whose governors approve hazard-mitigation plans that address climate change…

The policy doesn’t affect federal money for relief after a hurricane, flood, or other disaster. Specifically, beginning in March 2016, states seeking preparedness money will have to assess how climate change threatens their communities. Governors will have to sign off on hazard-mitigation plans. While some states, including New York, have already started incorporating climate risks in their plans, most haven’t because FEMA’s 2008 guidelines didn’t require it…

Among those who could face a difficult decision are New Jersey’s Gov. Christie and fellow Republican Govs. Rick Scott of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Greg Abbott of Texas, and Pat McCrory of North Carolina – all of whom have denied man-made climate change or refused to take action. The states they lead face immediate threats from climate change.

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So, good news — if your state gets leveled by an earthquake, you get help from the feds after everything’s been reduced to rubble. What you don’t get is help beforehand to mitigate the effects of earthquakes unless you’re willing to swear your oath of allegiance to the warmist cause. The biggest recipient of preparedness funds is Louisiana, so if a new hurricane ends up killing a few hundred people there, we’re all set for the mother of all blame games between Obama on the one hand and the state government on the other over whose fault it is that Louisiana didn’t get the money it needed up front to save lives. Bobby Jindal will play this to the hilt in the GOP primaries, using it as evidence of how he refuses to bow to Obama’s agenda even when big bucks are on the line.

“This story really brings together all the elements of Obamaism,” tweets Dan McLaughlin. which is true. It’s legally dubious; it ignores Congress, which might constitutionally have the power to let FEMA make this judgment but hasn’t been consulted; it’s an obvious political pander to the left with a bonus of putting right-wingers in a spot, even at the expense of placing citizens at risk; and it craps all over state autonomy. Basically, it’s the environmental equivalent of executive amnesty. All that’s missing is 18-24 months of Obama statements denying that he’d ever do something like this before turning around and doing it.

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Jindal’s sure to give FEMA a middle finger on it but I wonder what Chris Christie will do. He’s got to resist too, right? Jerseyans will hate him for it, but they already hate him and he doesn’t much care what they think anymore. Besides, he’s already started to get right with national primary voters on the issue. The next time he yells at someone for not giving New Jersey the FEMA money it needs, bet that he’ll be yelling at the White House, not House Republicans.

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