COASTAL BARRIER RESOURCES ACT, 20 YEARS LATER,HAS SAVED AMERICAN TAXPAYERS AN ESTIMATED $1.3 BILLION

The Coastal Barrier Resources Act, a landmark free-market approach to natural resource conservation that eliminated federal subsidies for development in sensitive coastal areas, has saved American taxpayers an estimated $1.3 billion since 1982, according to a report to Congress from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service..

Signed into law by President Reagan, the Act imposes no regulations on how individuals may develop their land, but it halted federal spending for roads, wastewater systems, potable water supplies and disaster relief in high-risk coastal areas. The Act also halted federally-guaranteed, low-cost flood insurance on designated units of the coastal barriers coastal barriers
Learn more about coastal barrier landforms.

Learn more about coastal barriers resources system, which includes areas on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Coasts and some in the Great Lakes.

The report notes that the Act is complemented and made to work even better when State and local governments add their own layers of protection. Texas, for example, prohibits State-backed windstorm insurance on designated coastal barriers, and on Dauphin in Alabama, the State