Ethan Strell

10 posts

Responding to Concerns About Affordability, Congress Pulls the Plug on 2012 Flood Insurance Reforms

Ethan I. Strell, CCCL Associate Director and Fellow On March 21, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 (2014 Act), whose stated purpose is to “delay the implementation of certain provisions of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Texas Hurricane Damage (photo credit: FEMA) […]

Survey of Five Southeast State Utility Commissions Finds Wide Variation in Hardening and Resiliency Requirements

A new paper by Katherine Carey looks at the different actions that state utility commissions in the Southeast have taken to ensure that their electric utilities are prepared for tomorrow’s storms. The Gulf Coast region in the Southeastern United States is at especially high risk of more severe hurricanes and […]

Public Service Commission Approves Con Ed Rate Case and Climate Change Adaptation Settlement

Ethan I. Strell, CCCL Associate Director & Fellow In an historic decision that will serve as a nationwide model, the New York State Public Service Commission on February 20 unanimously approved a settlement requiring Con Edison to implement state-of-the-art measures to plan for and protect its electric, gas, and steam […]

Temporary Delay of Flood Insurance Premium Increases Inserted into Omnibus Budget Bill

Ethan I. Strell, Esq. Associate Director & Fellow Columbia Center for Climate Change Law Earlier this week, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a massive 1582-page, over $1 trillion consolidated appropriations bill.  On page 706 of the current version of the bill, a one-sentence rider was inserted that would delay […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Downplays Risk of Sea Level Rise in Waste Storage EIS

Ethan I. Strell, Esq. Associate Director & Fellow The Columbia Center for Climate Change Law (CCCL) submitted comments today on the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s “Waste Confidence Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement” (DGEIS), which concerns the storage of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel at individual power plants beyond the […]

New CCCL Paper: Envisioning Resilient Electrical Infrastructure

New CCCL Paper: Envisioning Resilient Electrical Infrastructure by Sam Nierop, Visiting Scholar Only last week, a powerful storm left thousands without access to electricity across Europe.[1] Last year, Hurricane Sandy left more than 8 million people without power in the Northeastern United States.[2] As climate change amplifies the frequency and […]

Second Round of Sandy Relief Money Conditioned on Future Sea Level Rise Risk Analysis

Ethan I. Strell, Esq. Associate Director and Fellow Columbia Center for Climate Change Law On Monday November 18, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a Federal Register Notice setting forth the requirements for the second round of relief funds appropriated by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act […]