DeSantis removes global warming, climate change references from Florida law. Here's what else

In 2018, gubernatorial hopeful Ron DeSantis acknowledged some human impact on the climate.

New governor DeSantis dismissed human involvement in 2019 but said that "as climate changes, as the environment changes, as the water rises in places like South Florida, we want to make sure we’re taking steps to combat that." He appointed the state's first chief science officer and a Chief Resilience Officer tasked with addressing rising sea levels and met with experts on climate change over the impact to Florida.

That was then.

In the past few years, the governor of the state most vulnerable to rising seas and increasingly dangerous storms has done his best to stop everyone from talking about it.

Days after tornadoes tore through North Florida and the state capital, and a dangerous heat wave pushed the "feels like" temperature in South Florida into triple digits, breaking a 102-year-old temperature record in Palm Beach County, DeSantis signed a bill to remove all the remaining references to "climate change" in state law that former Gov. Rick Scott didn't already erase in 2011. The bill also bans offshore windmills for energy generation.

"We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots," DeSantis posted on X after he signed the bill.

The act was DeSantis' latest step towards the efforts of GOP leaders to fight efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses, promote fossil fuels, and undermine or ignore all green federal measures from the Biden administration.

It comes as the state is facing record-high temperatures, record high ocean water temperatures that increase the likelihood of powerful tropical storms and hurricanes. Other threats include coral bleaching in the Florida Keys, an increase in toxic algae blooms, rising seas that may have already intensified local flooding and eroded condominium foundations.

Residents are also enduring the enormous costs driving a home insurance crisis. The insurance companies that haven't folded or left the state are now charging premiums four times higher than the national average.

What does Florida's HB 1645, Energy Resources, do?

HB 1645, which passed largely along party lines, does the following:

• Promotes natural gas use, creates "resiliency facilities" to hold natural gas for emergencies and relaxes regulation on building natural gas pipelines within the state, requiring state certification and coordinated permitting only of pipelines 100 miles or longer, rather than the current 15-mile standard.

• Removes mentions of "climate change," "greenhouse gas emissions," "climate-friendly" and similar language and removes any emphasis on renewable energy resources from multiple Florida statutes, including the state's energy policy, and aims the state's energy goals at developing more fossil fuels.

• Prevents local governments from approving any energy policy restrictions.

• Bans the construction of offshore wind turbines or wind energy facilities within a mile of the coast, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway or Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, or "on waters of this state and any submerged lands."

• Removes requirement for state agencies, local governments and state universities and colleges to select vehicles for the greatest fuel efficiency available and for government agencies to hold conferences and meetings at hotels certified by the state’s environmental agency as "green lodging."

• Requires rural electrical cooperatives to create mutual aid agreements with public utilities or private contractors to restore power more quickly after a natural disaster or lose state financial assistance.

• Requires the Public Service Commission to develop plans to assess the state's power grid and natural gas facilities against physical threats and cyber attack, and investigate the feasibility of increased use of nuclear power in the state and hydrogen as a transportation fuel.

A proposed amendment by Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, to establish programs and services for workers in "transition-impacted" industries that would lose income as communities move to renewable energy failed to pass.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Gov. DeSantis strikes climate change from Florida law. What it means