North Carolina attempts to make a law turning back the sea

From NewsObserver on 28 May 2012 – a story of systematic attempt by North Carolina government to deny the extent of potential climate change effects:

Several local governments on the coast have passed resolutions against sea-level rise policies.

When the General Assembly convened this month, Republican legislators went further.

They circulated a bill that authorizes only the coastal commission to calculate how fast the sea is rising. It said the calculations must be based only on historic trends – leaving out the accelerated rise that climate scientists widely expect this century if warming increases and glaciers melt.

Excerpt from AN ACT TO STUDY AND MODIFY CERTAIN COASTAL MANAGEMENT POLICIES BILL 2011:

(e) The Division of Coastal Management shall be the only State agency authorized to develop rates of sea-level rise and shall do so only at the request of the Commission. These rates shall only be determined using historical data, and these data shall be limited to the time period following the year 1900.

Rates of sea-level rise may be extrapolated linearly to estimate future rates of rise but shall not include scenarios of accelerated rates of sea-level rise.

Rates of  sea-level rise shall not be one rate for the entire coast but, rather, the Division shall consider separately oceanfront and estuarine shorelines.

For oceanfront shorelines, the Division shall use no fewer than the four regions defined in the April 2011 report entitled "North Carolina Beach and Inlet Management Plan" published by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The oceanfront regions are: Region 1 (Brunswick County), Region 2 (NewHanover, Pender, and Onslow Counties and a portion of Carteret County), Region 3 (a portion  of Carteret County and Hyde County), and Region 4 (Dare and Currituck Counties).

For estuarine shorelines, the Division shall consider no fewer than two separate regions defined as  those north of Cape Lookout and those south of Cape Lookout.

(f) Any State agency, board, commission, institution, or other public entity thereof and  any county, municipality, or other local public body that develops a policy addressing sea-level rise that includes a rate of sea-level rise shall use only the rates of sea-level rise developed by the Division of Coastal Management as approved by the Commission. If the Commission has not approved a sea-level rise rate, then the sea-level rise policy shall not use a rate of sea-level  rise.