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DeSantis blocks climate change efforts, a partisan battle in the election

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John Kennedy
| Capital Office | USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA

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TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent billions of taxpayer dollars combating Florida’s water quality problems, revitalizing the Everglades and sending money to cities and counties dealing with damage caused by rising sea ​​levels and powerful storms.

But the Republican governor has also dug in deep, joining others in his party who oppose anything aimed at addressing climate change as the state prepares for an expected active hurricane season starting June 1.

He has already introduced a measure that strengthens the dominance of cars by discouraging cycle lanes and banning advertising and dark windows on city buses. DeSantis is expected to sign another measure limiting state spending on public transportation.

Additionally, legislation expected to be signed into law soon by DeSantis would remove the term “climate change” from state law and ban offshore wind turbines — which currently do not exist in Florida.

A history of rejection

DeSantis rejected more than $350 million in federal funding last year for energy efficiency initiatives under the Inflation Reduction Act, a centerpiece of President Biden’s economic agenda.

Weeks later, the DeSantis administration rejected $320 million in federal transportation money that the state initially considered using to reduce vehicle emissions by creating more rest areas for truckers, electric buses and roundabouts.

“We have seen a concerted effort to increase fear when it comes to issues like global warming and climate change,” DeSantis said last fall, when as a presidential candidate he unveiled an energy plan aimed at lowering gas prices. flanked by two oil rigs in West Texas.

At the time, DeSantis vowed to end Biden’s efforts to combat climate change. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has called climate change “a hoax” and vowed to reverse Biden’s far-reaching policies if he is elected later this year.

DeSantis has patched things up politically with Trump after he was viciously attacked by the former president and his campaign team during a short-lived Republican Party primary battle. He now also appears poised to further the Republican Party’s opposition to steps aimed at combating climate change heading into this fall’s presidential elections.

Opposition to climate change is a unifying force for the GOP in Florida

Within Florida’s Republican state government, resistance appears to be a unifying force. Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis sent out a warning last week that rooftop solar panels could increase insurance costs and last year repeatedly sounded the alarm about the fire threat posed by electric vehicle batteries.

“DeSantis’ political base doesn’t believe in climate change, which is like saying you don’t believe in gravity,” said Steven Cohen, a professor at Columbia University’s School of Public Affairs and director of the Research Program on Sustainability Policy. and management.

Surveys from the Pew Research Center last year found that a majority of American adults saw climate change as a major threat to the country’s well-being.

When Scott met scientists Scott meets with climate scientists after taking heat from NextGen

But while nearly eight in ten Democrats felt this way, a 20% increase from a decade ago, fewer than one in four Republicans see it as a major threat, a share that remains virtually unchanged from ten years earlier.

“He’s a smart guy,” Cohen said of DeSantis. “He knows climate change is real. You see so-called ‘blue-sky floods’ in South Florida, and extreme weather disasters are in the news almost every day. What will ultimately help are technical innovations that reduce the costs of the fight against climate change.”

But Cohen said Florida’s attempt to remove the term from state law is “insane.”

Scott: ‘I’m not a scientist’

During his first meeting with the Capitol Press Corps in 2019, the governor declined to say whether he thought climate change was at least partly caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels.

But during his recent failed bid for the White House, DeSantis said in a Dec. 9 interview with the Des Moines Register that he believes human activity is a “factor” in the changing climate: “I think there’s a variety to factors, including That.”

DeSantis’ predecessor, current U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, also distanced his administration from addressing global warming, dismissing the topic and saying, “I’m not a scientist.”

But prior to his re-election campaign a decade ago, Scott did agree to meet with a handful of Florida climate scientists, listening to their concerns but saying little. No dramatic policy changes resulted from the single meeting at the Capitol.

Among those who met with Scott, Florida State University climate scientist Jeff Chanton said, “In some ways we’ve gone backwards from 2014. At least Rick Scott talked to us. Once.”

Chanton also distinguished between state spending aimed at fortifying homes and coastal communities against the risk of storms. Some call such work softening, but Chanton said that’s “adaptation.”

“Adaptation is just continuing with things, ‘business as usual’, even if the weather gets worse. We are tightening construction standards on the coast and pumping water from the roads. But we are not really trying to mitigate the threat,” he said.

“Just look at our insurance costs. Insurance companies clearly do not have much confidence in the state’s approach,” said Chanton.

Don’t forget to turn off the water

Susan Glickman, vice president of climate education organization The CLEO Institute, said Florida’s approach “is like walking into the bathroom and seeing the tub overflowing, then grabbing all the towels to mop up the water, but never turning off the water.”

The new measure that removes the term climate change from state law effectively erases the last vestiges of a 2008 global warming and renewable energy package passed by the Republican Party-controlled state Legislature and signed by then- Republican Governor Charlie Crist.

Scott, who succeeded Crist, ended the state’s carbon reduction targets and also tried to keep climate change out of his administration’s vocabulary.

The legislation that DeSantis is expected to sign will prevent cities and counties from passing energy policy restrictions while banning offshore wind turbines.

Henry Kelley, a former Tea Party activist and now co-founder of Pensacola’s BlueWind Technology, which makes housings for wind turbines, said the state is sending a bad signal to an emerging new green industry.

“Saying the state is closed for business is discouraging to businesses and investors,” Kelley said. “I am conservative. And conservative and conservative have the same root word. When did conservationists become the bad guy?”

John Kennedy is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [email protected], or at @JKennedyReport.

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