The Miami Herald published a story Sunday that Gov. Rick Scott had banned the use of phrases like global warming and climate change, based on statements by former employees.
The only problem: it’s not true. At least according to Gov. Rick Scott.
On Monday, Scott denied that the administration in his Department of Environmental Protection was ever banned from using those terms. “It’s not true,” Scott told reporters in Hialeah. He said no such policy existed. While not going into specifics, he maintained the allegations were false.
A search of the DEP’s website revealed hundreds of instances of the phrases “climate change” and “global warming,” and the accusations were made by former employees of DEP that were fired or laid off.
Based on the reporting by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, which bills itself as a non-partisan investigative agency, the accusations appeared to be an orchestrated attempt by ex-employees to disgrace a sitting governor.
The day after the Miami Herald article was published, “State Democrats emailed a fundraising pitch to supporters Monday noting Scott’s climate-change position. The email was titled, ‘Is he serious?'”
While it’s no secret that Gov. Scott has said in the past that he is “not a scientist” when asked about the validity of man-made global warming, at no time did Scott order those phrases banned, or “scrubbed” from documents. In fact, the Herald story said it was verbally communicated and came from the top.
The Sunday Herald story was picked up and circulated widely by other newspapers, who reported the story verbatim, creating a bit of a firestorm for the Scott administration. On Monday, he set the record straight. He also told reporters of his administration’s ongoing environmental achievements:
“Let’s look at what we’ve accomplished,” he said. “We’ve had significant investments in beach renourishment, in flood mitigation. Look at what we’ve done with the Everglades: We settled a lawsuit over the Everglades. That litigation had been going on for decades. We put money in the Tamiami Trail, to raise that, to push water south. We’ve had — I think we’ve had record investments in our springs.
“I’m into solutions, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do,” he added.
According to Florida’s DEP website, Scott has asked for $1.6 billion to be allocated to “Protect and Preserve Florida’s Natural Resources.”
While many scientists that receive funding from the government and environmental groups believe the planet is warming due to mankind’s emissions of carbon dioxide, observable data shows no statistical warming for the last 18.6 years. Even EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy refused to acknowledge this good news or the even better news that not a single Category 3-5 hurricane has made U.S. landfall for nearly a decade (the U.S. hasn’t gone this long without a Cat-3 or higher hurricane making landfall since the Civil War).
Given that, it’s not surprising that Scott refused to go into any specifics on his positions regarding climate change, especially when the EPA’s own head was unaware that there has been no increase in temperatures, droughts, or hurricanes when she testified before the Senate last week. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, considered the reigning authority on climate, stated there was no link between extreme weather and climate change in its last report.
As Dr. Richard Lindzen, MIT atmospheric sciences professor emeritus, pointed out in the WSJ: “Billions of dollars have been poured into studies supporting climate alarm, and trillions of dollars have been involved in overthrowing the energy economy” ‚Äì and replacing it with expensive, inefficient, insufficient, job-killing, environmentally harmful wind, solar and biofuel sources.
Paul Driessen, a senior policy analyst for CFACT and a best-selling author who has been writing about climate for more than a decade, wrote that:
“The EPA, Fish & Wildlife Service, NOAA, USAID, Army and State Department transferred this taxpayer money to Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, Nature Conservancy, Natural Resource Defense Council, National Wildlife Fund and Clean Air Council, for research, reports, press releases and other activities that support and promote federal programs and agendas on air quality, climate change, climate impacts on wildlife, and many similar topics related to the Obama war on fossil fuels. The activists also testified before Congress and lobbied intensively behind the scenes on these issues.
“Between 2000 and 2013, EPA also paid the American Lung Association well over $20 million, and lavished over $180 million on its Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee members, to support agency positions. Chesapeake energy gave the Sierra Club $26 million to advance its Beyond Coal campaign. Russia gave generously to anti-fracking, climate change and related ‘green’ efforts.”
Since climate alarm is based more on emotion and faulty computer models, one of the arguments put forth by environmentalists is that Florida’s coastline is the only state most vulnerable to sea level rise. But once again, science trumps computer modeling.
According to a recent study, previous estimates of sea-level rise over most of the 20th century were too high. And according to satellite data, there has been no significant increase in how fast sea level is rising since 1993, with an overall trend of .059 inches per year, after deducting the steric (thermal and saline) component.
The Star also reported that Scott was in Hialeah to publicize a $41 million DOT project.
“This is going to make it better for the families that live here, also better for the people that come through this area,” he said. “We have to continue to invest in transportation if we’re going to get tourists to move here.”
