The Environmental Issue Republicans Can’t Ignore

When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared on his inauguration day that water is “part and parcel of Florida’s DNA,” and vowed to fight the pollution and toxic algae that choked the state’s beaches and fresh waters last summer, his critics rolled their eyes to the Tallahassee heavens above. DeSantis had a poor environmental voting record in Congress. He’d helped found the House Freedom Caucus, which urged President Donald Trump to eliminate the Clean Water Rule and dozens of other environmental safeguards.

But two days later, the critics looked to those same heavens in wonder. Florida’s new governor began his tenure with , calling for a record $2.5 billion for Everglades restoration, a harmful-algae task force, a chief, declared that DeSantis “has done more to protect the environment and tackle climate change in one week than his predecessor did in eight years.”