Administration freezes study on NYC sea wall Trump called ‘foolish’

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has frozen a major study aimed at preparing the New York and New Jersey waterfront from storm surges, sea-level rise and other climate impacts, a month after the president had called one of its proposals “foolish.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been overseeing a six-year, $19 million analysis of what steps New York and New Jersey residents living along the Atlantic Ocean’s coast to avert the kind of damage Superstorm Sandy wreaked in 2012. Scientists predict coastal storms will only intensify in coming years, and their impact will be exacerbated by sea-level rise linked to climate change.

In an email Friday, the agency announced the “indefinite postponement” of a public meeting planned for Feb. 27 in Rockaway Park because the New York New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study “did not receive federal appropriation funding” in the agency’s work plan this year. It did not elaborate on why the agency chose not to fund the initiative, which began in 2016.

The New York-based Newsday first reported the freeze in funding Monday. The Corps did not respond to a request for comment about the matter Tuesday.

“The administration is being penny-wise and pound-foolish by not funding the studies that allow New York to prepare for the next super-storm,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“There was no reason given for these cuts — because there is no answer.”

Federal, state and city officials have been analyzing a range of possible measures aimed at blunting the impact of more powerful storms and extensive flooding. The Corps of Engineers has outlined five barrier plans, four of which include retractable sea walls. One of those is a gigantic storm surge barrier that would cost roughly $110 billion and stretch from Sandy Hook in New Jersey to the Rockaways in New York.

On Jan. 18, after the New York Times published a front-page piece about the prospect of a sea wall, Mr. Trump tweeted that it “is a costly, foolish & environmentally unfriendly idea that, when needed, probably won’t work anyway.”

Regional Plan Association vice president for energy and environment Robert Freudenberg, who has worked on the study, said in an interview that freezing funding at this point represents a major setback.