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Climate change may not be among the pressing issues on your mind, but perhaps it should be. The task force created when President Obama signed his most recent executive order could eventually have control over where, when and how you build or add on to your home.
Want to build on the land grandpa left you and turn it into the perfect off-grid retreat, or build on a room for a new baby? You eventually may have to comply with federal “green” codes that overrule local building ordinances.
A portion of President Obama’s executive order forms a task force – the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force – that will examine the “climate preparedness” of communities and make recommendation on how they should change. The task force is to “identify opportunities to support and encourage smarter, more climate-resilient investments” by states and local communities – and recommend any changes in regulations. A White House fact sheet applauded local governments that already have updated “building codes.”
The order says the issue is pressing because temperatures are warming and sea levels are rising.
Those skeptical of the motivation behind the global warming and sustainable living executive should consider the new law as furtherance of Agenda 21 As previously reported by Off The Grid News, Agenda 21 is the nickname of a United Nations program of which the United States is a signatory. It is non-binding, but many officials within the countries that signed it are serious about its implementation.
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The UN initiative is supposedly focused solely on sustainable development. It was adopted by 178 countries in 1992 and is based upon a program to abolish poverty and protect “fragile environments” by “properly” managing cities. Some charge the program wants to push all citizens into cities.
The president had this to say about the need to protect the nation from global warming:
We’re going to need to get prepared. And that’s why this plan will also protect critical sectors of our economy and prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change that we cannot avoid.
Task force members will be the driving force in recommending how structures will meet climate-change certification. It is quite possible that government backed home loan programs will soon include stringent climate change stipulations. Those concerned about Agenda 21 have long said that the government will use a refusal of federal funds to accomplish their regionalist movement goals.
The climate change executive order task force also will review how federal money is spent on bridges, roads, flood control projects and other infrastructure programs which President Obama believes are impacted by global warming.
According to a FoxNews report, critics say the task force has the power to:
- “Hold back money to communities unless they meet new standards on various items and agendas set by the Federal Government. For example, using new policies that will encourage communities to rebuild to pre-disaster standards instead of stronger ones.
- Issue a “mandate to bring sweeping new changes to land use and resource policies.
- Control and refocus “climate change data and use of it to push a new agenda into every priority of the Federal Government.
- “Create the need for a new internal organization for coordination efforts during a government sequestration and possible future shutdowns.
The White House release after the climate change executive order was signed stated that even though the country has worked to curb carbon pollution, government officials need to “improve how states and communities” respond to extreme weather events, upgrade building codes, and address climate change impact on infrastructure.
The task force includes California Governor Jerry Brown, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie, Delaware Governor Jack Markell, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn.
