Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who took office Tuesday, signaled major shifts in several state policies, including how it handles the effects of climate change.
In a series of “policy reforms,” DeSantis said he wants to spend $2.5 billion over the next four years to address the adverse impacts of algae blooms that have caused massive fish kills in recent summers and to deal with the impacts from rising sea levels.
“Our water and natural resources are the foundation of our economy and our way of life in Florida," DeSantis said. “The protection of water resources is one of the most pressing issues facing our state.”
DeSantis, 40, said the state will create the Office of Resilience Coastal Protection and provide funding, technical assistance and coordination among state, regional and local entities to “prepare for impacts from sea level rise.” To date, those efforts have been undertaken by local governments.
Under Gov. Rick Scott, who was sworn in Tuesday in Washington, D.C. as Florida’s junior senator, state employees were barred from using “climate change” in documents and speaking engagements. Scott had also reduced funding for environmental programs, and opposed the use of debt.
DeSantis, a Republican, said his spending plan for environmental initiatives, which include the Everglades, will be $1 billion more than was spent over the previous four years. His office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about whether DeSantis will consider using bonds to finance capital expenditures.
DeSantis said he instructed the South Florida Water Management District to immediately start the next phase of work on the Everglades Agricultural Area Storage Reservoir Project, a more than $2 billion initiative for which the Legislature has already authorized bond financing.
The new reservoir will store algae-laden water from Lake Okeechobee, which is surrounded by a 143-mile earthen dike. When the lake rises too high and pressures the dike, polluted water currently is released into waterways to the southeast and southwest coasts, causing fish-killing algae blooms.
Eric Eikenberg, chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation, applauded the governor for directing state resources to the reservoir and other environmental issues.
“After decades of delay, Gov. DeSantis has today placed Florida on a trajectory to complete the EAA Reservoir not in 10 years, but in four,” Eikenberg said. “He has clearly heard the cries of Floridians who have had enough of perennial algae outbreaks, and to scientists and engineers who confirm that construction of the reservoir will reduce algae-causing Lake Okeechobee discharges by more than half.”
On Thursday, DeSantis also said he supported a ban on fracking and coastal drilling. He ordered a chief science officer be designated to coordinate scientific data, research, and monitoring, and directed that the environmental crimes enforcement unit from the Fish and Wildlife Commission to the Department of Environmental Protection.
With the longest coastline of any state in the Trump administration’s proposal to open nearly all the U.S. to offshore drilling, there has been widespread public support for opposing the plan.
Scott met with former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke who verbally said Florida would be exempt from the drilling proposal. Since then, the Department of the Interior has said Zinke’s promise to Florida wasn’t a formal action and will be part of the department’s analysis as it completes its plans.
On Tuesday, DeSantis’ executive order also instructed state agencies to explore options “to stop Georgia’s harmful upstream water use from causing further adverse impacts to the Apalachicola River and Bay” in north Florida.
The move appeared to signal that his office will continue to pursue a lawsuit Scott filed against the state of Georgia in October 2013 seeking an injunction from the U.S. Supreme Court to apportion the amount of water Georgia uses. The suit contends that the lack of water flowing from Georgia is harming oyster beds and fishing in Florida’s Apalachicola Bay downstream.
A special master told the high court that it couldn’t be determined how much water would be appropriate for Florida to received, but justices sent the case back for more work to be done on whether a cap on Georgia’s consumption can address Florida’s injuries.
Saying it’s time for a clean reset of leadership, DeSantis on Tuesday also asked for the immediate resignation of all nine members of the South Florida Water Management District’s board of directors. They were appointed by Scott.
