by Daniel Brouse
May 6, 2025
The $1.4 billion in federal grants allocated to North Carolina for Hurricane Helene recovery is a textbook example of what’s wrong with President Trump’s economic and environmental legacy. These funds, distributed through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, are intended as a last resort—supporting long-term disaster recovery when all other avenues, such as insurance and FEMA aid, have been exhausted.
But what we’re witnessing isn’t just a recovery plan—it’s a glaring indictment of policy failure. This is not how we should be dealing with climate change or taxpayer-funded bailouts. Instead of investing in long-term climate solutions, resilience, and retreat from high-risk zones, we are using public funds to rebuild the same homes, roads, and infrastructure that were just destroyed—knowing full well they’ll likely be destroyed again.
The irony is painful. Had the federal government seriously acted on the warnings of climate scientists—like those championed by Al Gore over two decades ago—this entire crisis could have been mitigated or even avoided. Instead, climate denial and deregulation became official policy under Trump. Science was sidelined, fossil fuel interests were protected, and now American taxpayers are footing the bill.
And this is just the beginning. Rebuilding in disaster-prone areas not only wastes money, it also contributes to a vicious cycle of destruction, insurance collapse, and economic displacement. The rebuilt infrastructure won’t survive intensifying storms, floods, and heat waves—so this $1.4 billion won’t be the last federal handout. Meanwhile, private insurers are fleeing high-risk states, leaving public programs—funded by all of us—to pick up the pieces.
Just look to Florida, Louisiana, and California for a glimpse of what’s to come. In Florida, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation—the state-run insurer of last resort—has become the top provider in many regions. Premiums have skyrocketed, in some cases reaching 20 times the cost of coverage in more stable states like Pennsylvania. Much of Florida’s coastal real estate has become virtually uninsurable.
California’s FAIR Plan tells a similar story. Originally created in 1968 to help homeowners in wildfire-prone areas who couldn’t get private coverage, it was supposed to be a temporary solution. Today, it’s one of the largest providers in the state, a reflection of how many private insurers have simply walked away from the growing risks of climate-exacerbated disasters.
Perhaps the most glaring contradiction of all is the Republican embrace of socialized risk. The very politicians who deny the reality of climate change and preach free-market values are the same ones who rely on publicly funded insurance backstops and disaster aid to subsidize rebuilding in increasingly uninhabitable regions.
Until we align economic policy with climate science, the cycle will repeat: denial, disaster, bailout, rebuild, repeat. And each time, the cost—in taxpayer dollars, in displaced families, in lost lives—will grow.