As Florida suffers, Ron DeSantis leads the fight against green energy

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Amanda Marcotte
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With Hurricane Ian devastating Florida, we need to remember that Ron DeSantis has gone out of his way to be the figurehead for the GOP's state level war to undermine Biden's climate bill. This hasn't been heavily reported, but it's important.

salon.com
As Florida suffers, Ron DeSantis leads the fight against green energy
Under the guise of attacking "woke capital," DeSantis has undermine Democrats' efforts to battle climate change
10:24 AM · Sep 29, 2022

https://www.salon.com/2022/09/29/as-hurricane-ian-ravages-florida-dont-forget-ron-desantis-leads-the-on-green-energy/

In the era of worsening climate change, record-setting weather events have become less shocking, but remain as gut-wrenching as ever. So it is with Hurricane Ian, which made landfall as a category 4 hurricane and ripped through Florida Wednesday with 150 mph winds and flood waters engulfing numerous beachfront communities. As the Washington Post reports, this is "one of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the United States." But of course, worse-than-ever is the new normal in the 21st century, when the Earth's average surface temperature is already 1.51°F above the 20th-century average.

Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis loves to hog the headlines as one of America's most aggressive culture warriors, with stunts like censoring acknowledgment of LGBTQ identities in school and luring a group of asylum-seekers to Martha's Vineyard with false promises. But as the floodwaters rise, he's temporarily reskinned himself as a responsible steward of his people's safety, thanking President Biden for his help and saying, "We all need to work together, regardless of party lines."

But let's not forget that before Ian ravaged his state and knocking out electrical power for more than 2 million Florida residents, DeSantis led the GOP charge to undermine Biden's signature legislative achievement, one that might potentially benefit Florida more than any other state in the country: The Inflation Reduction Act. Despite the bill's midterm-friendly name, it's in fact the largest climate-change legislation ever enacted in the U.S. Through a series of tax credits and low-cost loans, the IRA aims at supercharging investment in green technology, which would not only lower carbon emissions in the U.S. but create pathways for the rest of the world to go green at lower costs.

Deeming the investment in green energy to be "woke capital," DeSantis has become the figurehead of Republican efforts to undermine Biden's climate agenda. He and other Republican governors are using state power to punish companies who want to redirect money away from fossil fuels and towards the green technology that Biden's bill aims to boost.

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