Granholm: ‘We Don’t Know Fully’ if Climate Change Played Role in Collapse of FL Condo

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Tuesday suggested it is possible climate change led to the partial condominium collapse in Miami, FL.

When asked on CNN’s “New Day” if climate change’s impact on “extraordinary tides” played a role in the condo collapse, Granholm said “we don’t know fully” if it did or not. She added that beaches all around are seeing the “phenomenon” of rising waters.

“Obviously, we don’t know fully, but we do know that the seas are rising,” Granholm emphasized. “I mean, we know that we’re losing inches and inches of beaches, not just in Florida but all around. You know, Lake Michigan, where I’m from, you know, we’ve seen the loss of beaches because the waters are rising, so, you know, this is a phenomenon that will continue, whether we’ll have to wait to see what the analysis is for this building, but the issue about resiliency and making sure we adapt to this change in climate, that means levees need to be built, sea walls need to be built, that means infrastructure needs to be built. We need to make sure that we invest enough in clearing out the forests, so we don’t have these weather events. We need to invest in hardening our transmission lines, maybe burying wires so that we can protect areas that are tinderbox dry. There’s so much investment we need to do to protect ourselves from climate change but also address it and mitigate it, and hopefully, these infrastructure bills, when taken together, will make a huge step and allow America to lead again.”

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