Sea levels are rising, which means that there’s a greater risk of floods that reach well over the high tide mark. By 2030, the risk that coastal floods will go four feet or more over high tide will have doubled, Climate Central reports. And in that zone lie 287 energy facilities — power plants, natural gas facilities, and oil and gas refineries — that now stand a greater chance of getting an unexpected bath.
The state most likely to be screwed by this state of affairs is, of course, Louisiana. Not only is it full of oil and gas infrastructure, that infrastructure has been built on low-lying ground (which they have a lot of down there). More than half of the at-risk facilities that Climate Central identified are in Louisiana.
But Florida, California, and New York also need to worry about their power plants, and Texas and New Jersey about their oil and gas facilities. If this sort of infrastructure gets seriously flooded and goes offline, the economy takes a hit as businesses go without power and energy. Plus, there’s the expense of fixing back up a flooded refinery. Just one more way that climate change is going to be costly.
