The Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill Thursday creating a sea level rise office and task force. That measure (SB 7016), written by the Senate Infrastructure and Security Committee and spearheaded by Chair Tom Lee, creates the Statewide Office of Resiliency and the Statewide Sea-Level Rise Task Force. The state’s Chief Resilience Officer (CRO), currently under the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), would oversee both bodies. An Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection currently sits under DEP, but the new office would report directly to the Governor. The bill does not specify the new office’s role, but states that the task force will create sea-level rise baseline projections with assistance from DEP to be sent to that department’s Environmental Regulation Commission for approval.