Peters Holds Field Summit Examining Rising Costs of Climate Change to Taxpayers

In celebration of Earth Day today, US Senator Gary Peters of Michigan hosted a Field Summit in East Lansing to address the rising costs of climate change to taxpayers.

The summit, titled “The Cost of Inaction: The Impacts of Climate Change and the Financial Burden on Taxpayers,” focused on the financial impacts of climate change on national security, infrastructure, economy and public health.

Peters also announced a report with recommendations to help prevent further costs to taxpayers from the failure to prepare for and address damage from climate change.

“As the driving force behind increasingly severe weather events, climate change is a key contributor to extreme flooding, wind damage and other destruction that is wreaking havoc on our communities and costing us billions of dollars in damage,” said Senator Peters in his opening statement. “Catastrophic weather events have cost the federal government, and in turn the American taxpayer, roughly half a trillion dollars in disaster assistance alone.”

He also commented on the floods experienced in Houghton County as well as other historic rainfall and severe flooding events in Lansing and the metro Detroit area in the last five years. These events have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to roads, bridges, property and businesses.

“Communities across Michigan have seen the impact of these extreme weather events, and felt the heavy financial burden these storms yield,” Senator Peters continued. “Unless we quickly take bold steps to address climate change, we will not be able to turn back the clock on the damage done to our planet, and American taxpayers will be on the hook for billions of dollars in cleanup costs in the years and decades to come.”

Peters convened the summit following a recent Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) High Risk List report, which identified the government’s lack of preparedness for the effects of climate change as a key source of financial vulnerability for taxpayers.

Peters also released a Committee minority staff report that identifies the steep costs to taxpayers if the federal government fails to act on climate change, which are amplified by the Trump Administration’s threats to cut federal funding to address the impacts of climate change. Peters’ report found that the government must invest in efforts to prevent damage from climate change to save taxpayers billions of dollars in the coming years.

Video of Senator Peters’ opening remarks is available here, and the full text of his remarks as prepared for delivery can be found here.