Daniel Tilson“Let’s Keep Florida Beautiful” is the name of Gov. Rick Scott’s new environmental plan unveiled this week on his website and in multiple public appearances. Team Scott took a “timing is everything” approach to the proposal, introducing it just as news was breaking that billionaire businessman and climate change activist Tom Steyer is targeting the governor for defeat in November.
According to the Miami Herald, Steyer will spend $10 million in Florida as part of “a nationwide push to fight Republicans who deny the existence of man-made climate change.”
When asked during his 2010 campaign whether he agreed with overwhelming scientific consensus that man-made climate change was real, Scott said, “I have not been convinced.”
Then recently in the midst of his re-election campaign, he was asked if he believes climate change is man-made, or not. He took a cue from Marco Rubio’s playbook by infamously answering, “I’m not a scientist…” then adding, “but I know what I can do, and that is do everything I can do to protect the environment.”
Guess that’s the equivalent of having stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and studied political tightrope walking, without actually knowing how to provide leadership on environmental and energy policy. Whether Scott gets away with passing himself off as an environmental protection champion based on this new plan is anybody’s guess.
But since I already cashed in on one commercial reference, let me go “daily double” and use ESPN’s Coors Light tagline to offer some Cold Hard Facts about Scott’s environmental and energy policies. Maybe it’ll take the guesswork out of voters’ appraisal of his re-election year proposal.
Start with the name, “Let’s Keep Florida Beautiful.” Note how there’s no mention of keeping Florida above water, nothingabout keeping people safe, or protecting their property.
The plan is to pump millions into protecting the Everglades and other waterways, develop new water resources, and give back some money cut from land preservation programs. Those are baby steps in the right direction — if the direction in need of following only had to take us to higher environmental protection ground. It doesn’t. It needs to do much more.
But instead of being the statesmanlike leader we need now and taking time to, yes, sit down with scientists and all stakeholders,big and small, to craft acomprehensive, interconnected Climate Change-Clean Energy- Environmental Protection plan, we get “Let’s Keep Florida Beautiful.”
Instead of the right direction, we get misdirection.
We get a plan that puts a concealing Band-Aid on the open, festering wound that is Gov. Scott’s actual environmental protection record. Thanks to the Florida Democratic Party, we can look at the cold hard facts of that record assembled on one page. It’s not pretty, certainly not “beautiful”. Facts don’t lie. People do.
In his 2014 State of the state speech, Scott crowed about “How we have invested record funding in protecting our environment….” Two days later Politifact Florida rated the statement “FALSE”.
But new plan in hand, Team Scott will still look to score “protecting our environment” points on the campaign trail. This is their diversionary tactic to avoid discussion of the governor’s dangerous energy policies and climate-change denial.
Miami is already suffering severe flooding as sea levels keep rising. Other coastal communities statewide are suffering flooding, beach erosion and property damage. But with Florida labeled “Ground Zero” for cataclysmic climate change, Scott, his Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Republican legislators have taken us backwards.
First, they gave the state’s Big Energy powerhouses monopoly control over energy policy after being showered with millions in campaign contributions. Then they eliminated solar system credits and rebates for homeowners, with thousands already approved for rebates never getting them.
For good measure, they eliminated the statutory requirement that Florida have Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards (RPS) like most states do, setting specific goals and benchmarks for conversion to clean energy.
I could go on. And it can get worse. But as long as we keep Florida beautiful, maybe everything will turn out OK.
Daniel Tilson has a Boca Raton-based communications firm called Full Cup Media, specializing in online video and written content for non-profits, political candidates and organizations, and small businesses. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
