What passes for a governor in Florida
The Tampa Bay Times is standing up to the newly minted green image Rick Scott is trying to portray. In a
scathing editorial the
Tampa Bay Times relies on the facts of Scotts record to uncover the blatant hypocrisy of his new green promises. The
nonprofit TBT's doesn't pull any punches with our
tin-man governor. If I were Rick Scott I wouldn't want to be caught in a dark alley with the editorial board of the
Tampa Bay Times.
For the last 50 years, Florida's governors have been reasonably responsible stewards of the state's fragile environment. They initiated efforts to clean up rivers and bays, buy and preserve millions of acres of sensitive land, manage growth and preserve the Everglades. Developers and agricultural interests still got their way too often in the state's boom-or-bust economy, but Tampa Bay is cleaner and more land is protected from development than a generation or two ago. In just four years, Gov. Rick Scott has put those accomplishments at risk.
Scott has bulldozed a record of environmental protection that his Republican and Democratic predecessors spent decades building. He weakened the enforcement of environmental laws and cut support for clean water, conservation and other programs. He simultaneously made it easier for the biggest polluters and private industries to degrade the state's natural resources. While the first-term Republican attempts to transform himself into an environmentalist during his re-election campaign, his record reflects a callous disregard for the state's natural resources and no understanding of how deeply Floridians care about their state's beauty and treasures.
Scott changed the direction of environmental policy from the start, appointing a Jacksonville shipping executive with "insights on the challenges businesses face in the permitting process" as the secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. He asked the Legislature for smaller budgets for DEP every year except for this election year. But the governor's stinginess is only part of the problem. He also triggered a brain drain among regulators, sided with polluters and developers over public health, refused to acknowledge the impact of man-made climate change and stalled any serious attempt to address water quality, land conservation or growth management.
[...]
Scott wants voters to believe he has turned green. His record shows he has been the least environmentally sensitive governor in the last half-century, and there is no reason to expect there would be a sudden transformation in a second term.
my bold
The Tampa Bay Times knows Rick Scott inside out and they have not withheld any judgement of his known opportunistic character. I encourage you to read the entire piece it's a barn burner!
Please support Charlie Crist for Florida governor