Center for American Progress Report Reveals North Carolina Has Received $260,942,144 In Federal Dollars to Pay for Climate Change Fueled Disasters
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Rennicks, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, 865-235-1448, [email protected]
Center for American Progress Report Reveals North Carolina Has Received $260,942,144 In Federal Dollars to Pay for Climate Change Fueled Disasters
Asheville, N.C. – September 16, 2013 — Last week, the Center for American Progress (CAP) released an analysis showing a state-by-state breakdown of the nearly $50 billion overall, and $260,942,144 in North Carolina specifically, spent by the federal government on disaster relief in fiscal years 2011 and 2012. This is the first-ever estimate of each state’s receipt of federal disaster funds during that time period.
“The huge expenditure of federal disaster aid to North Carolina reflects the growing threat posed by climate-related extreme weather events,” said Jennifer Rennicks, Director of Policy & Communications for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
The CAP report follows closely on the heals of a NOAA/American Meteorological Society analysis that determined that approximately half the extreme weather events analyzed were at least in part the result of human-caused climate change.
In 2011 and 2012, there were 25 severe storms, floods, droughts, heat waves, and wildfires that each caused more than $1 billion in economic damages, with a total price tag of $188 billion. Climate scientists warn that climate change could increase the frequency and ferocity of storms, and such extreme weather could become the “new normal” after decades of relative climate stability.
The analysis also found that the 10 states that received the most federal recovery aid in FY 2011 and 2012 elected 47 climate-science deniers to the Senate and the House. A majority of the senators from these top 10 recipient states voted against granting federal emergency aid to New Jersey and New York after Superstorm Sandy in FY 2013.
Read the full analysis: States of Denial: States with the Most Federal Disaster Aid Sent Climate-Science Deniers to Congress by Daniel J. Weiss, Jackie Weidman, and Stephanie Pinkalla.
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Founded in 1985, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible energy choices that create global warming solutions and ensure clean, safe, and healthy communities throughout the Southeast. Learn more at www.cleanenergy.org