Polls show Florida Republicans care deeply about climate change | Opinion - South Florida Sun Sentinel

Polls show Florida Republicans care deeply about climate change | Opinion - Sun Sentinel

As extreme droughts and flash floods began challenging our state earlier this year, three polls were conducted — two by Republican pollsters, and one by Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Environmental Studies— to understand what Floridians think about climate change. For those of us working in environmental and energy policy in the state, the responses from Republicans were striking.

Having worked for more than three years as the Florida state director for a right-of-center energy and climate organization, I know first-hand how much many conservatives in the state care about our environmental challenges. Even so, these recent polls defied my expectations. They show, as one pollster put it, that “Florida’s Republican base is more environmentally conscious than arguably any other red state in the country.”

All three polls demonstrate that significant proportions of Republicans understand climate change is happening and are concerned about the impacts on day-to-day life. According to the recent poll by Spry Strategies, a majority of Florida Republicans are concerned with the costs related to increasing flooding from sea-level rise and extreme weather.

Public Opinion Strategies’ poll demonstrates there’s a near-universal understanding among Florida Republican voters that the global increase in carbon pollution — much of it from China — is exacerbating local environmental impacts. And the FAU report indicates that 90% of Floridians overall can see that the climate is changing, a significantly higher proportion than virtually all other red states.

What accounts for these results in Florida? We Florida conservatives feel the pain of insurance rates skyrocketing, smell the stench of septic tanks flushed out by flooding, and endure more frequent and more catastrophic storm damage across the state.

There is, though, a crucial explanation on why our concern for the environment has not translated into support for Democrat-led climate policies. Republicans do not want solutions to environmental problems that resemble the Green New Deal, with reckless spending, command-and-control regulations and liberal ideology baked in. It’s simply against who we are.

We prefer a strategy that prioritizes innovation, free choice and the harnessing of the creative powers of the American economy.

We also are concerned with facts that get little attention from the environmental mainstream. For example, we’re quick to point out that what we do here in the U.S. will not matter in addressing the climate challenge if foreign countries don’t get with the program and cut their own pollution. We know that, as we work to quickly become a cleaner nation, our adversaries are not, which they use to their strategic benefit.

The recent polling shows a consensus among Florida voters on this issue. People understand weak environmental laws abroad give foreign polluters an edge over U.S. companies= and want China’s pollution practices addressed.

These polls give us a fascinating glimpse of what Floridian Republicans believe. But it’s important to also mention what they don’t spotlight: the work leaders in Florida’s GOP are already doing on the environment, which is significant and growing.

Gov. Ron DeSantis — with Republican leadership and support across the state Legislature — passed a historic environmental package last year that fortifies resilience, water quality and the Everglades. Our Congressional delegation — and notably Reps. Maria Salazar, Carlos Gimenez and Kat Cammack, and Sen. Rick Scott — are advancing bills that promote advanced energy development, conserve land and water, and take on China’s pollution directly. Their efforts to advance environmental policy often go unnoticed, but are underway and set them apart from Republicans in other states.

As a young professional and Republican, I thank those in the GOP who are already leading on these topics, and I encourage my conservative peers to look at the numbers and be inspired to continue picking up the mantle in addressing Florida’s many environmental challenges.

Yanni Psareas is the regional director for Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends and political director for the Florida Federation of College Republicans.