WHAT’S NEXT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE?
The climate change champion in the Florida Legislature is out of office, leaving those pushing for action to wonder who it’s going to come from.
The day after Floridians took to voting booths, the same day the United States officially left a global agreement to reduce planet-warming emissions, Miami state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez was gearing up for a recount he would lose.
Rodríguez had become known in Tallahassee for wearing galoshes around the Capitol. It was an attempt, he said, to make his colleagues pay attention to sea level rise after years of inaction. His narrow defeat, in a race clouded by a no-party candidate with the same last name (who may have lived in a different district), was not a clear referendum on Rodríguez’s politics.
But it left the Legislature of a state perhaps more vulnerable than most to climate change without a clear champion on the issue. The question now is whether Florida needs that kind of figure, or whether it has reached a point where the topic no longer requires a man slipping on rain boots to prompt discussion in the halls of power.
“It is a worrying message in terms of what it says about climate policy,” said Rodríguez, a Democrat, talking also about the state’s backing of President Donald Trump, who has doubted the science of climate change. The loss belied his experience on the campaign trail, where he said voters asked about the subject more than ever. Floridians, too, backed some local green measures; residents of Key Biscayne approved a $100 million bond to address sea level rise.
“My hope is that maybe there’s a disconnect on policy and politics,” Rodríguez said, “that people weren’t intending to vote against the climate agenda.”
Surveys show most Floridians accept the realities of climate change and worry about the impacts. A shift in the electorate, advocates say, has led to a gradual thaw on conversations about the problem in Tallahassee. The altered tone follows a decade of avoidance by Republican leadership, they say, though lawmakers still shy away from talking seriously about emissions that contribute to climate change.
Incoming House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, and Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, wrote earlier this year about the need to improve flood defenses. After multiple failed attempts, Rodríguez last year joined with Rep. Vance Aloupis, a Miami Republican, to pass a law that requires sea level rise studies before certain statefunded construction.
“The state has a responsibility to address these issues,” Aloupis said. Parts of his district flood even in regular storms. “It’s never good to be reliant upon one person. It needs to be something that’s an ongoing conversation.”
Some progressives thought Florida might swing on the climate vote in 2020.
It did not.
The Sierra Club Florida tallied 21 House wins — and 36 losses — for candidates friendly to its cause across the primary and general election, said Deborah Foote, the group’s government affairs and political director. In the Senate, she said, they managed an even record.
“The brighter light is shining on those local races where we are seeing a significant number of
THIS IS GOING TO HAVE TO BE NOT JUST LOOKED AT FROM A POLICY PERSPECTIVE BUT FROM AN APPROPRIATIONS PERSPECTIVE.
Rep. Vance Aloupis