In January, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate gave states a choice for dealing with climate change. Option A: Do nothing about the rising toll of extreme weather, and hope Congress's threats to restrict disaster aid -- by raising the damage threshold required to receive that aid -- never come to pass. Option B was more interesting.

FEMA suggested what it called a disaster deductible: State governments would be on the hook for some of the cost of cleaning up after hurricanes, floods and other calamities. But they could lower that deductible by taking steps to reduce their exposure -- for example, by passing tougher building codes.