Florida Bill Would Purge State Laws of Climate Change Mentions

[Celerity]

The bill, which awaits Ron DeSantis’ signature, would also ban offshore wind farms.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/03/florida-bill-would-purge-state-laws-of-climate-change-mentions/

https://archive.is/ebMRz



In Florida, the effects of climate change are hard to ignore, no matter your politics. It’s the hottest state—Miami spent a record 46 days above a heat index of 100 degrees last summer—and many homes and businesses are clustered along beachfront areas threatened by rising seas and hurricanes. The Republican-led legislature has responded with more than $640 million for resilience projects to adapt to coastal threats. But the same politicians don’t seem ready to acknowledge the root cause of these problems. A bill awaiting signature from Governor Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race in January, would ban offshore wind energy, relax regulations on natural gas pipelines, and delete the majority of mentions of climate change from existing state laws.



“Florida is on the front lines of the warming climate crisis, and the fact that we’re going to erase that sends the wrong message,” said Yoca Arditi-Rocha, the executive director of the CLEO Institute, a climate education and advocacy nonprofit in Florida. “It sends the message, at least to me and to a good majority of Floridians, that this is not a priority for the state.” As climate change has been swept into the country’s culture wars, it’s created a particularly sticky situation in Florida. Republicans associate “climate change” with Democrats—and see it as a pretext for pushing a progressive agenda—so they generally try to distance themselves from the issue. When a reporter asked DeSantis what he was doing to address the climate crisis in 2021, DeSantis dodged the question, replying, “We’re not doing any left-wing stuff.” In practice, this approach has consisted of trying to manage the effects of climate change while ignoring what’s behind them.

The bill, sponsored by state Representative Bobby Payne, a Republican from Palatka in north-central Florida, would strike eight references to climate change in current state laws, leaving just seven references untouched, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Some of the bill’s proposed language tweaks are minor, but others repeal whole sections of laws. For example, it would eliminate a “green government grant” program that helps cities and school districts cut their carbon emissions. A 2008 policy stating that Florida is at the front lines of climate change and can reduce those impacts by cutting emissions would be replaced with a new goal: providing “an adequate, reliable, and cost-effective supply of energy for the state in a manner that promotes the health and welfare of the public and economic growth.”



Florida politicians have a history of attempting to silence conversations about the fossil fuel emissions driving sea level rise, heavier floods, and worsening toxic algae blooms. When Rick Scott was the Republican governor of the state between 2011 and 2019, state officials were ordered to avoid using the phrases “climate change” or “global warming” in communications, emails, and reports, according to the Miami Herald. It foreshadowed what would happen at the federal level after President Donald Trump took office in 2017. The phrase “climate change” started disappearing from the websites of federal environmental agencies, with the term’s use going down 38 percent between 2016 and 2020. “Sorry, but this web page is not available for viewing right now,” the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate change site said during Trump’s term.

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[tanyev]

1. Ron DeSantis, Governor of the Fact Free State of Florida.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

2. What will it matter when the coastline of Miami is underwater, Ronnie?

Beaches are eroded to the point of buildings toppling over one another. Constant and more violent hurricanes rip through Florida from the Atlantic and Gulf sides. Temperatures so hot and humid that added strain is put on utilities. Destruction of vital infrastructure needed to live lives comes to a halt. All because you DENY climate change?

Get real, Ronnie! Abolishing language regarding Climate Change will not alter the path of storms, etc.

[onethatcares]

3. and people are wondering why insurers are pulling out

of the state or no longer writing policies due to climate change, global warming, and this stupid fucking governor.

Anecdotal: on the ABC news station here in the Tampa Bay region there's been an interview with some guy who's house floods every year or so.
He comes right out and says, " So I get free remodeling when it happens......" Apparently he hasn't a clue. BTW, he's in the Shore Acres area of St Petersburg,

[Marthe48]

4. I can just imagine people in florida wondering why they are up to their rear ends in standing water

in Miami or why tourism slowed down.

I guess denial is a way to keep people ignorant of their reality.

[redqueen]

5. Good maybe Florida will go blue.

The GOP are beyond stupid. They'd already be history if the media wasn't helping them with their both sides bullshit

[mitch96]

6. So what is this guy gonna call it? You can deny facts all you want but when the facts bite you in the ass

You have to call it something. It will be curious what "tag" are they gonna put on South Florida flooding?
When I lived in South Fla, I was 6 miles from the Atlantic.. and 8 feet above sea level..
How do you tell insurance companies that are leaving, no RUNNING from water front property that the liquid stuff is not real. I guess he will deal with each "event" by it's self and not a trend. When the events get close to each other it's a problem. Like driving a car and just looking over the hood at the ground.
Y'all gonna hit something eventually..
Denial is not only a river in Egypt......He is such a putz..
m