California is ‘woefully unprepared” for the challenge of accelerating sea-level rise and could potentially lose billions of dollars in revenue due to related impacts, according to a final report recently issued by the Assembly Select Committee on Sea Level Rise and the California Economy.

Chaired by state Assemblyman Richard Gordon, D-Menlo Park, the Select Committee held a series of hearings around the state featuring testimony from scientists and industry leaders about potential impacts to the state’s economy and infrastructure.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, has called San Mateo County ‘ground zero” for sea level rise on the West Coast because so many of its assets are located at sea level.

The Select Committee’s final report urges Californians to prepare for the seas to rise by an average of three feet during this century, and cites data generated in the Bay Area to support that conclusion. The nation’s oldest continually operating sea-level gauge, which is located at Fort Point in the San Francisco Bay, recorded a seven-inch rise in area sea level during the 20th century, the report says. According to a 2012 report by the National […]