BRIC by BRIC: Federal Natural Infrastructure Funding for the Future
BY PORTER GRAHAM Shared & Regional Government Affairs Director Issued in October 2018, Executive Order 80 promulgated the framework within which Governor Cooper plans to honor North Carolina’s responsibilities as a signatory to the United States Climate Alliance, a coalition of twenty-four states committed to the 28 INSIGHT • February 2021
2015 Paris Agreement regardless of federal climate policy. Executive Order 80’s ambitious emissions and energy consumption reduction targets dominated associated reporting, which underemphasized Governor Cooper’s other notable foci on resilience and adaptation planning. Among Executive Order 80’s underreported elements was a directive that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issue North Carolina’s first comprehensive climate adaptation plan. Released in June 2020, DEQ’s Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan (hereinafter “the Plan”) prioritizes enhancement of natural infrastructure as an “immediate focus” for state and local government. “Natural infrastructure” merited the Plan’s
reference thirteen times, including in Governor Cooper’s brief introduction, all with one specified purpose: flood prevention. The centrality of flood prevention to climate adaptation planning in coastal communities, and evidently of natural infrastructure to the state’s resilience solution toolkit, begs practical questions about the suitability of existing funding authorities to natural infrastructure flood mitigation projects. In an environment of grave budgetary challenges for state and local governments and historical disparities in pre- and post-disaster federal funding, what federal legislative and programmatic support enables interpretation of North Carolina’s new natural infrastructure emphasis
