Editorial: State rejects issue vital to Palm Beach: Managing climate change
Palm Beachers live, work and play on a coastal barrier island. There’s much to like about this lifestyle, but it also presents the town government with numerous pressing issues regarding the environment and accessible resources. For starters, the town must manage beach erosion, plan for rising sea levels, secure a reliable source for potable fresh water, and prepare for a potential major hurricane disaster.
Scientists are repeatedly warning us that none of these situations are going to get any easier to deal with. For instance, the new hurricane season that opens June 1 will likely begin with ocean surface temperatures well above historical averages across the Atlantic hurricane development region, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. Meteorologists are warning of an unusually active season with potentially more powerful storms than usual.
And yes, the scientific community almost unanimously agrees that all of those challenges facing Palm Beach, along with weather-related phenomena elsewhere — including deadly uncontrollable wildfires, an atmospheric river deluge that hit California last February, and the current rash of intense spring tornadoes — are because of human-caused climate change.
But however potent climate change may be, the phrase itself could soon be off-limits in Tallahassee.
A bill (HB 1645) recently passed by the Florida Legislature and sitting on Gov. DeSantis’ desk, awaiting his signature, would eliminate the use of the term in all official state documents and publications. DeSantis has expressed his support for the bill.
To be clear, the bill is tied to energy resources, not issues related to rising seas. The supporters of HB 1645 say it would protect Florida’s energy consumers with more reliability, lower costs, and ensure there will be no future energy insecurity in the state. It requires rural electric co-ops and municipal electric utilities to enter into mutual aid agreements for restoring power after natural disasters. It also tasks the Public Service Commission with conducting an assessment of the state’s electric grid and natural gas facilities to judge its resilience against physical and cyber threats.
All well and good.
But that’s not all the new legislation would do. It also would repeal a 16-year-old Florida law, championed by then-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, dictating that protecting the environment would be a priority when making energy policy decisions in Florida. When Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator, followed Crist as governor, Republicans began gutting provisions in the new environmental law. But HB 1645 would officially finish the job.
The bill eliminates a host of other environmental programs such as the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Technology Grant, the Florida Green Government Grants Act, and the Energy Economic Zone. It also bans the government from booking meetings at hotels and buildings certified as “green lodging,” and eliminates a requirement that state agencies, public universities and local governments lease hybrid and electric vehicles.
There’s even a ban on offshore wind turbines, which supporters of the measure say would ruin beach views for tourists.
Florida is not a major energy-producing state and relies primarily on imported oil and natural gas for electrical generation. Supporters of this bill say the Crist-era environmental priority needed to be repealed because it made it less flexible for the state to meet its needs. But with plenty of year-round sunshine and subtropical trade winds, wouldn’t continuing to fund the pursuit of solar and wind technology hold the promise of more self-sufficiency and energy resilience?
We fail to see how defunding state clean energy grants and reversing 16 years of environmental efforts while banning other passive energy options will do anything other than eliminate competition to fossil fuels — and ensure our dependence on them for years to come.
This Tuesday’s Palm Beach Town Council agenda will include a review of the budgets for an inlet-dredging project and two beach erosion projects. The town is being asked to shell out nearly a million dollars upfront for a portion of these projects, although that money ultimately would be reimbursed by a state agency.
In light of this bill in Tallahassee and its dramatic move away from a policy of environmental protection, one wonders what future funding will look like.
Florida is a flat state with many low-lying coastal cities, including Palm Beach. We can’t afford to develop climate change amnesia. If anything, we should be at the vanguard of applying every innovative technology possible to meet the biggest challenge of our age — climate change — whether the issue is energy or the effects of rising seas.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Edditorial: State takes wrong step against managing climate change
