By Maria Ortiz
May 16, 2024, 01:27 AM EDT
Florida lawmakers are doing everything they can to remove many mentions of climate change from state laws in a new law that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Wednesday, according to his official X account.
“Florida rejects the left’s designs to weaken our energy grid, pursue a radical climate agenda, and advance foreign adversaries,” DeSantis said in the X post, posting a graphic that said the law would protect the state from “green bigots.” .
New law will delete the words “climate change” from state statutes and will make energy a top priority to ensure “an adequate, reliable, and cost-effective energy supply to the state in a manner that promotes the health and well-being of the public and economic growth,” according to the legislative analysis.
With extreme summer heat and this year’s hurricane season arriving in Florida next month, the sweeping law makes several changes to the state’s energy policy: in some cases, eliminating entire sections of state law that talk about the importance to reduce the pollution that warms the planet.
The law would also give preferential treatment to natural gas and ban offshore wind, although there are no wind farms planned off the coast of Florida.
It is certainly not the first time that Republican politicians eliminate the phrase “climate change”; Deleting the phrase from government websites was a common activity during the Trump administration.
But experts told CNN that few states have passed bills to move away from clean energy and erase climate mentions from their laws.
“It goes further than any other state in repealing its existing climate laws,” Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, told CNN.
Democrats and environmentalists were quick to criticize Florida’s new law on Wednesday.
“Floridians are on the front lines of rising sea levels, increasing extreme heat, rising property insurance prices, more frequent flooding and more severe storms,” said Yoca Arditi-Rocha, executive director of the CLEO Institute.
“This intentional act of cognitive dissonance is proof that the governor and state legislature are not acting in the best interest of Floridians, but rather to protect the profits of the fossil fuel industry,” Arditi-Rocha said.
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