other related policies. The House of Representatives passed H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, by a vote of 219-212 on June 26, 2009. While the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources reported an independent energy bill on June 17, 2009, Senate leadership has continued to express its intentions to combine this bill with a more comprehensive energy and climate bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, currently under consideration by the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee. Energy and climate legislation should include a section on adaptation (as was tried in the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2007 described in Table 3.1). This would be particularly appropriate for the research recommendations. It is most likely that a cap-and-trade act will take an “upstream” approach rather than set sector-bysector targets; therefore, cap-and-trade legislation is not likely to focus on transportation in particular but be more broadly aimed. Some of the research recommendations (such as the establish-
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ment of a climate services clearinghouse, and the development of consistent forms of climate data) could be addressed through the appropriation bills for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or other science agencies. Further, since many of the most costly impacts of climate change are likely to occur in coastal areas due to sea-level rise and storm intensification, some of the planning and inventory recommendations could be implemented through amendments to the Coastal Zone Management Act (as was attempted with the Coastal State Climate Change Planning Act of 2008, see Table 3.1).
3.3 Analysis of State-Level Activities Future federal policies will need to interact with ongoing state actions, and recognize the geographic diversity that may lead to different policies and levels of involvement among different states. While much adaptation will be focused on coastal states, other issues related to severe weather, including droughts, will occur nationwide.
T R A N S P O RTATI O N A DA P TATI O N TO G LO BA L C LI M AT E C H A N G E