News

The Florida Paradox: Voters Believe in Climate Change. They Also Believe in Trump. - Capital and Main

Capital and Main · last updated May 17, 2024 – 7:42 AM

The Florida Paradox: Voters Believe in Climate Change. They Also Believe in Trump.

The Heat 2024
As Florida reels amid climate change, Trump asks Big Oil for $1 billion and pledges to roll back Biden’s green agenda.

On the morning of April 10, some of Southeast Florida’s top environmental officials met in West Palm Beach to discuss the region’s climate risks, including an expected 6-12 inch rise in sea level by 2040. Among the cited risks: increases in temperature, coastal erosion, and storm surges – all due to climate change. As a result, counties in the region are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by taking advantage of incentives to increase the use of electric vehicles and requiring capital construction projects to include resiliency and sustainability features.

Join our email list to get the stories that mainstream news is overlooking.

The next night, about nine miles away in Palm Beach, former President Trump met over dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort home with top oil and gas industry executives from ExxonMobil, EQT Corporation and Cheniere Energy, telling them that they should donate $1 billion to his presidential campaign because he would cut environmental rules that hurt their industry. The event was organized by Harold Hamm, the executive chairman of Continental Resources who just two weeks earlier had contributed $614,000 to a political action committee supporting the campaign of Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax” and railed against the use of electric vehicles.

The two events illustrate the paradox of Florida this election cycle. It’s one of the states most impacted by climate change — along with record heat waves and surging storms, the rising sea and shrinking coast routinely flood driveways in Miami and could put Mar-a-Lago itself underwater in coming decades. Yet Florida is a red state whose Legislature just voted to literally erase the term “climate change” from state legislation and codes and to nullify renewable energy use goals that had been in place since 2022.

That contradiction is reflected in the state’s voters, whose belief that climate change is unfolding right now is higher than the national average ( 90% to 72%); 68% want their state government and the federal government to do more to address the crisis.

“If you look at the word ‘conservative’ and the word ‘conservation,’ there’s a root word in common.”

~ Henry Kelley, co-founder, BlueWind Technology

Yet Trump leads President Biden, who pushed through the country’s most ambitious climate initiative, by nine points in Florida according to a recent poll. And U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, who reportedly once banned the words “climate change” and “global warming” from the executive office when he was the state’s governor, is expected to easily ward off a challenge this November from his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who has a strong record on the environment and has pledged to take action on climate change.

But the dichotomy is starting to upend the state’s politics. “Climate plays out every single day in the politics of the state of Florida,” said David Kieve, the president of EDF Action, the advocacy partner of the Environmental Defense Fund. “Voters want to see solutions.”

Henry Kelley is one voter taking that message to heart. A former Tea Party activist and lifelong Republican, he is the co-founder of Pensacola’s BlueWind Technology, which employs 150 people and makes housing for wind turbines. Kelley voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and was a county chairman for Scott’s first gubernatorial campaign in 2010, but he doesn’t plan to vote for either of them this year, largely due to their refusal to take climate change seriously and resistance to renewable energy sources.

“I refuse to vote for people whose positions I fundamentally disagree with,” he said, citing the state’s recent decision to outlaw offshore wind energy and Trump’s opposition to wind energy in general. “If you look at the word ‘conservative’ and the word ‘conservation,’ there’s a root word in common,” he added, applauding local efforts such as in Miami to reinforce the shorelines.

Kelley said that his stance has made him a “pariah” among fellow Republicans and he is dismayed at the politicization of the climate crisis by both parties. That’s why he’s not voting for Biden either, blaming the president for setting goals for the use of renewable energy that are too aggressive. And he’s outraged at the hypocrisy of GOP lawmakers, who publicly talk about repealing Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act, which has funded climate initiatives in many red states, and yet privately tell him, “The hell we are. It’s creating jobs!”

“When you ask voters what their top issues are, it’s property insurance, which is directly impacted by the climate change impacting Florida.”

~ Peter Schorsch, editor, Florida Politics

Kieve acknowledges that climate change may not be changing voters’ minds this election cycle — but one of its symptoms has become a major issue and headache for the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. Property insurance in the state has spiked in recent years, largely due to flooding caused by climate change that impacts the many homeowners who live in the state’s coastal areas. Yet the GOP-dominated Legislature closed its 2024 session without taking any steps to address the crisis. As a result, it’s the top issue, along with inflation, driving voters to the polls this year, according to a recent poll by the Associated Industries of Florida.

When asked if climate is playing a role in the state’s elections, longtime political consultant and Florida Politics editor Peter Schorsch said, “No, no one is saying that word. But when you ask voters what their top issues are, it’s property insurance, which is directly impacted by the climate change impacting Florida.” He added, “I say that not just as a politico, but as someone who has had their home flooded three times in the last year!”

Longtime ecologist William “Coty” Keller, who lives and works in Port Charlotte, hopes that his neighbors become climate voters this cycle.

“We got what we voted for: officeholders who value the demands of rich donors and corporations over the best interests of the people. Our officeholders have falsely claimed that transitioning to zero-emission energy would hurt the economy. The opposite is true,” he wrote in an email to Capital & Main, noting, “Unless new civic-minded leaders are put in office, our lifestyles and economy will degrade, and life as we know it will not exist for our descendants.”

The Heat 2024

The Heat 20248 seconds ago

State of Inequality23 hours ago

Why Health Care Leaders Are Sounding an Alarm About the Danger of a Trump Presidency

Latest News3 days ago

Governor’s Budget Includes Painful Cuts to Housing, Homelessness and Welfare Programs

The Slick3 days ago

New Mexico Loophole May Allow Record Methane Releases

Dirty Money: U.S. Banks and the Climate Crisis4 days ago

How the Bank-Run Bond Market Could Make Clean Energy Cheaper

Latest News7 days ago

Calculating the ‘White Bonus’

State of Inequality1 week ago

Biden’s Obamacare Expansion for DACA Immigrants Is Big. California’s Need Is Bigger.

The Slick1 week ago

California’s Dream of a Green Hydrogen Future Could Backfire

The Slick1 week ago

‘How Do You Approve an Underground Toxic Waste Dump Without Telling Nobody?’

Latest News2 weeks ago

Oil Companies Contaminated a Family Farm. The Courts and Regulators Let the Drillers Walk Away.

The Slick3 weeks ago

Thousands of Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells Pollute the Texas Landscape

The Slick3 days ago

New Mexico Loophole May Allow Record Methane Releases

Culture & Media4 weeks ago

The Mission to Save the World Through Regenerative Farming

Class War2 weeks ago

As Book Bans Soar, Public Libraries Are the New Battleground

Latest News3 days ago

Governor’s Budget Includes Painful Cuts to Housing, Homelessness and Welfare Programs

Latest News4 weeks ago

Despite Promises of Transparency, California Justice Department Keeps Probe into L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Under Wraps

The Heat 20242 weeks ago

U.S. Oil and Gas Production Is Booming. So Are the Industry’s Donations to Its GOP Allies.

State of Inequality23 hours ago

Why Health Care Leaders Are Sounding an Alarm About the Danger of a Trump Presidency

State of Inequality4 weeks ago

Critical Audit of California’s Efforts to Reduce Homelessness Has Silver Linings

State of Inequality2 weeks ago

For Health System Reform, Even With Majority Will, There Is No Way

Featured Video6 months ago

CLASS WAR: The Temecula School Board Battle

Featured Video12 months ago

Excavating the Future: Stopping AAPI Hate

Excavating The Future12 months ago

Excavating the Future: Stopping AAPI Hate

Excavating The Future12 months ago

Excavating the Future: Guarding the Hidden Archive

Excavating The Future12 months ago

Excavating the Future: Breaking the Silence

Excavating The Future1 year ago

Excavating the Future: Guarding the Hidden Archive

ILL HARVEST1 year ago

ILL HARVEST

Latest News2 years ago

Kaiser Therapists: Strike Is About Complying With the Law

Latest News2 years ago

‘What They Need Is Someone at Their Side’

Latest News2 years ago

Kaiser Therapists Say Patient Neglect Compels Them to Strike

DONATE

Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation

State of Play

The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.

More informationabout Climate legislation

The Florida Paradox: Voters Believe in Climate Change. They Also Believe in Trump. - Capital and Main

Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation

here today, more tomorrow