A.G. Gancarski
Florida’s former Governor is offering another indirect critique of his replacement’s storm response.
During an interview on the “Ryan Gorman Show,” U.S. Sen. Rick Scott slammed the slow pace of gas returning to the system in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.
“We finally have gas back in our gas stations,” Scott said. “That took a ridiculous amount of time.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis was compelled to take extraordinary measures to resolve what he called a distribution problem to bring fuel supply back to heavily populated Southwest Florida. Petroleum at the pump there was depleted even before the storm hit as evacuees filled roads to get out of town, and the shortage of fuel only exacerbated the stress.
Gas shortages and power outages at gas stations in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area and points south led to the establishment of public fuel depots, which created the spectacle in some places of people burning fuel during long waits for their 10-gallon allotment. Meanwhile, DeSantis blamed current law for a “loophole” that allowed gas stations not to have generators as required by law, but suggested that changing that would be a “Venezuela” type intervention.
This is only the latest subtle but unmistakable critique of DeSantis by Scott.
Last week, he contended that property insurance rates had “skyrocketed in the last six years” since the current Governor took office and are “not going to get any better” in the wake of Hurricane Milton’s unprecedented destruction.
Those in Scott’s orbit also have taken issue with DeSantis’ assertion that no Governor before him had staged power restoration assets, such as crews of linemen and equipment from other areas, even as mutual aid agreements have been a staple of storm response for many years.
12 comments
Tallahassee Insider
October 17, 2024 at 10:15 am
Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis hate each other. Everybody in the know has known this for years.
Jimbeau
October 17, 2024 at 11:31 am
Working part-time, I earn more than $13,000 per month. I kept hearing how much money people could make online, so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true, and it completely altered my life… This is what I do; you can learn more about it by visiting the website listed below.
Begin here>>>>>>>>> Payathome9.Com
MHDuuuval
October 17, 2024 at 10:16 am
Whine on, Trick. Running scared, like DJT.
Linwood Wright
October 17, 2024 at 10:46 am
Rick Scott is shaking his fist and yelling at clouds again.
Is he even aware that there was a hurricane that caused mass evacuations, created a huge demand for gasoline, while at the same time shut down all traffic into the port for a period of time?
I mean, yeah, gas shortages suck, but it’s not like there wasn’t a pretty valid reason for it.
Cheesy Floridian
October 17, 2024 at 3:19 pm
There was a reason and there wasn’t. DeSantis could have done more and should have done. If you have millions of people that needed to evacuate he should have been bringing in more fuel. He said there wasn’t a shortage a day or 2 before Milton hit.
Jim "Cuthbert" Rumbold
October 17, 2024 at 11:12 am
Irma was a terrible response. RS is lucky Irma didn’t hurt him in 2018.
MHDuuuval
October 17, 2024 at 3:21 pm
Trick bluffed his way through Irma by being on TV the entire disaster, much as Dee did recently.
The one person responsible for reorganizing Florida’s emergency response system in in Washington, DC, now: US Rep. Moskovitz.
Dee is the beneficiary of Moskovitz’s organization acumen and essentially is a weather girl of yore.
Bobble head Kammy
October 18, 2024 at 3:32 am
The zombies here jump at anything that has the names of Scott, DeSantis, or Trump. Now if a Demo makes an outrageous statement like the blonde bimbo in Jacksonville or like Kammy blaming Trump for the millions SHE allowed in the zombies say nothing.
TJC
October 19, 2024 at 10:53 am
Bullshit.
Bobble head Kammy
October 18, 2024 at 3:46 am
This would be a more appropriate use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. Joe and Kammy drained these as an attempt to influence fuel prices. Yes the same two morons that declared war on the Petroleum industry when they took power.
TJC
October 19, 2024 at 10:52 am
The Reserves were not drained. Biden sold off about half, and there’s still hundreds of millions of of barrels still available. But you never let a fact get in the way of your bullshit.
KatgrynA
October 18, 2024 at 11:55 am
There was not a shortage of gas in the country— just huge demand due to the major evacuation of people and the ports had damage and couldn’t get the gasoline out. Sad,, but fairly normal after a major hurricane.
Comments are closed.