DeSantis reveals an environmental plan before the Everglades trip

Hundreds of miles from Washington's political quagmire, former Congressman Ron DeSantis was navigating another type of wetland. Wednesday. And this one does not need to empty. On the contrary.

A few hours after unveiling a new environmental plan, which plans to allow the waters of Lake Okeechobee to flow south into Florida Bay, the Republican candidate to the state joined in half an hour to a "Alligator Ron" ride on the Everglades hydrofoil. And just like Washington, a pack of journalists stayed warm, pointing their cameras and their microphone to separate boats.

"We had to get a little behind you," said DeSantis, joined by Bergeron. "He killed two pythons on the way home … arrived and abused them."

Pretending to be a "Republican with the Teddy Roosevelt," DeSantis said Wednesday that restoring the Everglades and keeping the Florida environment was his priority. This will certainly be a priority for his general election campaign, as he passed from the Republican Republican Court in August to independent and undecided voters in September when he comes up against Democrat Andrew Gillum.

Thus, with the Democrats who support him as a "fictitious environmentalist," DeSantis published his first political document as a candidate for governorship: a four-part plan to protect water supplies and beaches by banning water flow fracturing and prevention of toxic algal blooms fueled by wastewater discharges from Okeechobee Lake. And then he did a traditional campaign across the river of grass.

"For me, everything is on the table," said DeSantis. "I'm not someone who thinks you're not just red tape and it solves problems, but there are cases where you can make a focused approach that could make a difference."

The deployment of the policy – which, according to critics, disappoints a mediocre vote during three congressional terms – includes a commitment to create a task force to study a massive outbreak of red tide on the southwestern coast of the country. State and a promise of law a "prohibiting fracking. DeSantis also stated that it will continue to conduct ongoing projects to bridge the Tamiami Trail on the Everglades and build a massive water reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee.

Just hours after resigning from the US House of Representatives to focus on his campaign, the conservative Republican began touring waterways plagued by toxic blue-green algae and promoting his plans for environmental protection. DeSantis said his administration would focus on limiting Okeechobee Lake's excessive spills by restoring the Everglades and completing the construction of a south reservoir, a feat he said would not be possible without federal funding of nearly billion dollars.

He also stated that he would seek to address the consequences of rising sea levels on coastal communities, to centralize the implementation of water quality standards under the direction of the Director of the Department of Environmental Protection and to abide by the Florida Forever Amendment requiring the state to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on conservation projects. He said he was ready to buy land near Lake Okeechobee.

By publishing his plan, DeSantis emphasized – as he often does – his close relationship with President Donald Trump as a key benefit to secure federal funding for the restoration of the Everglades and the reduction of polluted discharges.

"To do this, our next governor must have the ability to work with President Trump, his administration, and Congress to finally deliver the Florida Everglades restoration," said the DeSantis platform. "No one is better placed to accomplish these goals than Ron DeSantis."

It is crucial for DeSantis to have a plan to address wastewater discharges from Lake Okeechobee. The release of billions of gallons of polluted water from the lake has tainted the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries three of the past five years, including this summer. During the August 28th primary, Gov. Rick Scott, who ran in the US Senate against a nominal opponent, experienced one of his worst performances in Martin County, fueled by the St. Lucia River.

DeSantis says the Everglades are the "cornerstone" of this plan and after an airboat ride five miles from an Alligator Alley ramp in Broward County, Bergeron said the two men are working on the efforts restoration.

"I have spent most of my life trying to save one of the natural wonders of the world. And I'm really honored to work with our next governor, "Bergeron, dressed in fatigues, told reporters.

But Democrats and environmental groups on Wednesday chose DeSantis's environmental plan, warning that it lacked details about efforts to tackle the cause of water pollution and not mention the climate change.

"This plan is incomplete," said Frank Jackalone, Florida chapter director for the Sierra Club.

Jackalone said the DeSantis plan would do nothing to "fight pollution at the source" and said the state's reservoir plan was, by its own admission, inadequate in terms of cleaning up wastewater. Jackalone, whose organization was among several who sued the state to demand that the money be spent in Florida for land acquisition and conservation efforts rather than overhead, also feared that DeSantis' support to this amendment support an ongoing appeal of the decision filed by the Florida House and the Senate.

Aliki Moncrief, executive director of Florida Conservation Voters, in a conference call with reporters from the Florida Democratic Party, also said DeSantis' new plan "does not match its track record" in Congress. bill that would block federal oversight of waterways. DeSantis also voted with almost every other Republican in the House for a 2016 spending package that cut $ 108 million in funding and projects from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Moncrief and Jackalone both criticized DeSantis for rejecting efforts to tackle carbon emissions and other causes of climate change, which could exacerbate algal blooms and other environmental problems.

"Climate change was fueling those things," Moncrief said. "There is really no connection with that in the DeSantis plan."

At Broward Wednesday, DeSantis did not explain what he would do differently than Scott. But he said he was not a climate denier.

"I think that human activity contributes to our environment. I've always thought that. I am not one of the political leftists who says that if there are more hurricanes, it is because of climate change. Sometimes I think they're a little carried away, "he said, equating climate activists with religious fanatics. "I'm not in the church benches of leftist global warming. I am a curator of Teddy Roosevelt. It's just a different analysis.

In some respects, DeSantis has a primary campaign in which Big Sugar – a political power now accused of contributing to toxic algal blooms clogging the tributaries of Lake Okeechobee – has spent millions of people attacking it. DeSantis's televised reproaches against Big Sugar August 8 The Jacksonville debates were unprecedented for a major Republican candidate for governorship and earned him unusual acclaim from environmental groups. He was approved by the Everglades Foundation in his primary against Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, to whom he mocked by calling him "race boy for US Sugar".

By contrast, Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum said climate change is a "real and urgent threat" and that as mayor of Tallahassee, he led an initiative to reduce carbon emissions in the city by 40% . Like DeSantis, Gillum promises to clean up Lake Okeechobee, protect the Everglades and prioritize drinking water sources. Gillum also lent money to Big Sugar, and chose a mogul at Chris King, who framed a lost governor campaign around his opposition to the Florida sugar industry.

The DeSantis campaign ended Gillum's record on Wednesday, noting that he once supported a coal plant in North Florida (before voting against) and accused the mayor of inflating the reduction in carbon emissions. the city. In addition, one of Gillum's closest friends and senior campaigners is his long-time friend, Sean Pittman, a registered lobbyist for Florida Crystals, a major sugar company. Democrats say DeSantis is just starting to care about the environment.

Anyway, with the blooms of algae that foul the rivers and the coastline, and the Everglades under constant stress, both candidates know that they must show that they have plans for the environment in order to woo Florida voters.

"Florida's candidates know how important natural resources are to our ecology and our economy," said Celeste De Palma, director of Everglades' policies for Audubon Florida, said in a statement. "The grass river provides drinking water to one in three Floridians and no candidate can hope to win without focusing on environmental issues such as the Everglades."

Emily Mahoney, a reporter for the Herald / Times Tallahassee, contributed to this report.