Personally, I believe we should be more sensible about where we build our homes.  Areas that are susceptible to extreme beach erosion, hurricanes, mudslides, sea-level rise, and wildfires should be left as natural landscape or wildlife refuges.  Large scale economic waste will render nugatory any efforts for America to become energy independent or build a more sustainable economy. From The Associated Press:

The reason: A 1959 law known as the Texas Open Beaches Act. Under the law, the strip of beach between the average high-tide line and the average low-tide line is considered public property, and it is illegal to build anything there.

Over the years, the state has repeatedly invoked the law to seize houses in cases where a storm eroded a beach so badly that a home was suddenly sitting on public property. The aftermath of Ike could see the biggest such use of the law in Texas history.

.       .       .

[T]he area’s homeowners should not be surprised.

“Every one of them was warned of that in their earnest money contract, in the deed they received, in the title policy they bought,” he said. “And whether you like it or not, neither the Constitution of the United States nor the state of Texas nor any law permits you to have a structure on state-owned property that’s subject to the flow of the tide.”

Galveston, Texas area before and after Hurricane Ike:

Bolivar Peninsula, Texas before and after Hurricane Ike:

Images courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). More images can be found at the USGS.