The Coastal Barrier Resources Act: Harnessing the Power of Market Forces to Conserve America's Coasts and Save Taxpayers' Money

The Coastal Barrier Resources Reauthorization Act of 2000 directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to study the results of the law. We were asked to estimate how much money the Coastal Barrier Resources Act has saved taxpayers by restricting Federal spending for roads, wastewater systems, potable water supply, and disaster relief. This study meets this request and shows the market-based law has saved American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and will continue to save money as long as it exists. We were also asked to examine the Act's most important restriction: the National Flood Insurance Program. We describe the essential relationship between the Act and NFIP in the discussion section of this report.