Rick Scott's 'Climate Change' Ban Extended to Lots of Florida Agencies

Florida’s unofficial policy of keeping environmental officials from using terms like “climate change” and “global warming” in their work was reportedly extended to other state agencies. In the past few days, employees from Florida’s transportation, health and water agencies have approached reporters to confirm that they, too, were pressured to drop any references to the man-made phenomenon in official communications.

 

The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) first reported Sunday that Gov. Rick Scott’s administration ordered employees in the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, as well as DEP contractors and volunteers, to eliminate references to climate change and its effects in agency reports and discussions. Scott’s office and a DEP spokeswoman have repeatedly denied that such a policy exists. The governor this week told reporters: “It’s not true.”

But since the report was published, employees from the DEP and other state agencies have started reaching out to the FCIR team to confirm the Scott administration’s unofficial ban on mentions of climate change.

Bill Taylor, a former assistant district manager in the Florida Department of Transportation’s office in Fort Lauderdale, said he was told not to use certain environmental references during a meeting of district managers, FCIR reported this week. A former employee at the South Florida Water Management District said “it was widely known” among employees that terms like “climate change” and “global warming” couldn’t go into official reports. “They just wouldn’t make it through the editing process,” the source said.