It also challenges the established coastal states and cities to reconsider their current high-tax, high-regulation climates if they would like to join the growth party.

WSJ: Joel Kotkin: America's Red State Growth Corridors

Mr Hillier said "one of our previous reports identified we would potentially need three times as much money to maintain that current level of risk" surrounding coastal erosion and flooding "over the next 25 years".

BBC: Democracy Live site links

That cold current is the reason why Peru's coastal plain is a desert (whose soil can be made fertile when irrigated by the waters of rivers rushing down from the Andes).

ECONOMIST: The unkind child

But many blame the current frothiness of the housing market, particularly in dense coastal areas, on this policy.

ECONOMIST: Betting on Bernanke | The

The current law, which has been in effect since 1981, covers most of the country's coastal waters.

CNN: McCain wants to lift ban on offshore drilling