If you’ve ever visited Florida, you’re aware of the natural beauty of the Sunshine State. Florida has a unique charm that makes it a draw for tourists and residents, but what makes the state so unique also makes it environmentally fragile.
The peninsula’s low elevation and multiple water features, along with the ocean and tropical climate, make protecting the state’s land and resources a priority for any governor. Whereas a Democrat in charge of a state like Florida would impose draconian regulations and burdensome laws to protect the state’s environment, Republican governors like Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis have sought to balance protecting the state’s natural beauty with guarding free enterprise and the well-being of those who live in and visit the Sunshine State.
DeSantis sat down with Erick Erickson at Erickson’s Gathering in Atlanta on Friday, and the conversation touched on a wide range of subjects, from eliminating DEI in education to college sports to finding hope in a world like this. But one of the most fascinating snippets of conversation involved the governor’s efforts to protect his state’s environmental beauty without the left’s authoritarianism.
Erickson mentioned Florida’s freshwater springs and the Everglades before turning the tables on DeSantis to talk about protecting the state.
“You've got this tremendous environmentalism that Republicans often get knocked, as a mythology that we’re somehow bad for the environment,” Erickson said. “But you, as a conservative governor who supports free markets, have really done a good job of balancing business, commerce, trade, tourism, and also no degradation of the environment in Florida.”
He then asked DeSantis, “How do you balance those concerns from a conservative perspective to ensure the environment in Florida is pristine, environmentalists love what's going on there, but also you're not sacrificing trade, industry, and commerce?”
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“Our economy is strong because we have great natural resources,” DeSantis answered. “We're the number one boating state in the country... and it's not even close. And people come for that. They come from all over the country. Heck, they come from all over the world to be able to do that in the state of Florida.”
The governor described how his administration repaired some of the damage to the Everglades, which had happened over generations. He mentioned that the state can’t always fix everything, but taking care of Florida’s natural beauty is good for businesses and tourism.
“Our party really wasn't leaning in on it because I think they think — and I agree with something. I mean, when you hear things about the environment, you think, ‘Hey, the left uses that to try to advance their agenda,’” DeSantis said.
Describing the left perfectly, he continued, “They don't really care about the environment. They care about controlling your behavior. So I think there's a natural aversion when you see that, but that's not what we're doing.”
DeSantis contrasted the left’s environmental policy with a conservative vision of caring for the environment while caring for people:
I'm not trying to control your behavior. I'm trying to restore, the beauty of Florida, and we are doing it but then letting you enjoy it as a Floridian or as a tourist. I want more activity. I want people out and about. I want them doing that. So it's a different approach, and I think the left has given us an opening because their whole thing about the climate ideology, that's basically they want to impose very controlling, destructive policies on the American people.
They tell you the world's gonna end unless you adopt their entire political agenda. Gee, imagine how convenient that it just works out that way, right? You gotta do everything they want, otherwise, the world's gonna end. So, we've rejected that. In fact, we did an energy bill. Oh, the media got so mad at this. We did an energy bill this year...
... Our energy policy is we want reliable energy and affordable energy. And we specifically said our policy should not be based on climate ideology that causes people to pay more and is less reliable. They got so mad about that. But if you think about it, part of the reason we're able to get the power on in Florida after a storm is because we've embraced reliable energy.
And even though we've done that, our emissions are way down over the last 10-20 years than what they were previously. So we're going about all this, I think, in a very, sensible way.
And that's part of the reason why we've gotten so much broad, broad support in the state of Florida. All the different issues we face, you know, we're addressing everyone. We're just doing it from a conservative perspective rather than adopting liberal policies.
It’s possible to care for the planet without caving to far-left environmental narratives, and DeSantis is showing how it’s done. Here’s hoping more governors can do the same thing.
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