Ray Cantor, NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs
State land use regulations being formulated by the state Department of Environmental Protection could lead to half the state being designated as a flood zone and banks requiring homeowners and businesses to buy costly flood insurance.
“Once DEP starts saying about half the state is going to be in a flood zone, about half the state is going to have to start getting flood insurance when they finance their properties,” NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Ray Cantor told News 12’s Alex Zdan.
Cantor says DEP is drafting regulations based on flawed data in a non-peer-reviewed Rutgers study that said unchecked emissions could lead to up to 5 feet of sea level rise in New Jersey by 2100.
However, experts at the Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN) say the Rutgers sea level rise projections are substantially higher than those made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the intergovernmental body of the United Nations.
The DEP land use rules are expected to be proposed this summer and adopted as soon as next year. To watch the News 12 report, go here.
