The Oil Spill is Obama's Katrina if We Waste Both Disasters

June 1: Day 43 of the Gulf oil spill. T-minus 63 days before the Senate leaves for August recess -- ending the best hope for a climate bill perhaps anytime soon.

Today also marks Day 1 of what federal forecasters predict could be one of the most active hurricane seasons on record.

As the climate bill remains in a listless holding pattern and right-wing pundits hijack the media narrative with nonsensical notions of “Obama’s Katrina," the president could be doing a lot more to harness the power of this moment. He is in danger of missing the boat entirely on one timeworn political adage: “never waste a good crisis.”

He can look to Hurricane Katrina itself for an example of a crisis that has atrophied without real reform. In 2005, the storm sounded major wakeup calls about the imminent dangers of our rising fossil fuel emissions and our careless destruction of the protective wetlands that buffer us from floods. Yet today, we are still hitting the snooze button on both of these alarms.

This season, the snooze may be up. Scientists predict up to 14 hurricanes, one less than occurred during the deadly 2005 season. This activity is at least in part fueled by record-high Atlantic sea surface temperatures.

The biggest lesson we’ve yet to absorb in Katrina’s aftermath is that when greenhouse gas emitters pollute for free, society pays the consequences, including a future of more destructive hurricanes.

On a more local scale, Katrina’s has taught other hard lessons about how we unwisely subsidize unsound environmental practices. I’m talking about the National Flood Insurance Program. Today, the federal government insures some 5.5 million flood-prone properties; some are below-market-rate polices that private companies won't touch with a ten-foot pole. As such, the 2005 hurricane season has left the 42-year-old program in a $19 billion sinkhole of debt. Now taxpayers are on the hook to foot these and future unsustainable debts - even more so if damage claims rise as hurricane intensify.

Environmentalists have long-held that the program amounts today to a subsidized destruction of America’s floodplains for the benefit of beachfront vacationers and wealthy homeowners (Rosie O’Donnell, Matt Damon, I’m looking at you). A recent report by New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity backs up these arguments.

Now, at long last, the House is considering an overhaul to fix the flawed program, a bill backed by California Democrat Maxine Waters that would also extend NFIP through 2015. Property groups, frightened that the latest in a series of short-term extensions has expired today, affecting thousands of new mortgage applications, are pushing for her package.

The problem is that it is unlikely that the reforms in the Waters bill go far enough, according to the National Wildlife Federation and others.The group argues that well-off homeowners should pay higher premiums to match their true flood risk, and that the program needs to mandate insurance for all – not just some -- homes in risky floodplain areas. Lastly, climate change cannot be ignored.

Perversely, while these reforms are debated, the House is set to vote on a whole new set of subsidies for homes that pave over wetlands. Dubbed the Beach House Bailout Bill, the Homeowners’ Defense Act could further insulate Florida homeowners from their risky living situations and would exacerbate income disparities, as already noted by my Change.org colleague. A coalition of odd bedfellows – environmentalists, free-market advocates, and federal spending watchdogs – are opposing the bill.

As we enter another scary cyclone season, their opposition makes a lot of sense. But if we’ve learned anything from Hurricane Katrina, it’s that we also need to do more than oppose unwise policies -- whether expanded offshore drilling or flood insurance bailouts. President Obama, Congress and dedicated reformers must not squander the chance to enact positive legislation.

Photo credit: The U.S. Army