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On Oct 22nd, less than two weeks after Hurricane Milton devastated Florida’s Gulf Coast, Tampa Bay leaders held a press conference to call out Rick Scott’s hurricane hypocrisy. While Scott pretends to be a hero during hurricane season, in reality, he’s a known climate change denier and has repeatedly voted against disaster relief and climate resiliency funding.
Florida’s insurance crisis started under Scott’s watch as Governor, and now Floridians pay more than four times the national average for home insurance. Scott’s campaigns have been bankrolled by the insurance industry, including Heritage Insurance, who got a $52 million “sweetheart deal” after writing a $110K check for Scott’s campaign.
Click here to download video and photos from the press conference. See key excerpts below:
“Senator Rick Scott, when he was governor of Florida, did absolutely nothing to change our climate change trajectory. I can remember when for a half hour, he said he would talk to climate scientists. He spent one half hour of his eight year term talking to climate scientists and then promptly ignored them and banned the discussion of climate change in our documents in the state,” said Pat Kemp, Hillsborough County Commissioner and Congressional candidate for FL-15.
“It’s always someone else’s fault besides the insurance industry. Always. They will never have a discussion in Tallahassee about possibly holding the insurance companies accountable, or possibly seeing if what they’re charging is okay, or maybe seeing if the way they treat their policyholders is okay. That never happens, and Rick Scott was certainly no exception. But when you combine that with his refusal to accept climate change: this crisis is his. I’m not a I’m not a Ron DeSantis fan, but we’ve now got this 10 to 12 year track. This is Rick Scott. This is his policies coming home to roost,” said Sean Shaw, former State Representative and candidate for Hillsborough County Commissioner.
“Floridians know that the weather has changed. You add to that a Governor and a Senator who has spent the last ten plus years on a crusade to lie to us about the truth. Where we’re at today is a direct result of misfeasance and malfeasance on behalf of our elected officials. We need to elect people who tell us the truth. Floridians aren’t stupid, but our politicians like Rick Scott do treat us that way. So the truth is climate change is here — it’s the reality we’re living in,” said James Scott, Chair of Sierra Club Florida.
“While I was in middle school learning how greenhouse gasses heat up the atmosphere, he was busy burying his head in the sand and banning the mention of climate change. Not only that, while leading Florida, the most vulnerable state in the country to climate change, Rick Scott invested millions of his own personal fortune in gas and utility companies that spew climate pollution into the atmosphere. He then turns around and blocks multiple legislative efforts to address our state’s dire need to invest in climate resiliency. Rick Scott set us back decades and he’ll continue to do so,” said Adrian Reyes-Alzate, youth climate activist.