GOP Sen. Rick Scott Tells CNN ‘Climate Is Clearly Changing’ — Rejecting DeSantis’s Hostility to Acknowledging Climate Change

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) did not hesitate to agree with CNN anchor Dana Bash when she asked him if climate change was causing hurricanes to become more severe — putting him at odds with his successor in Tallahassee, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

Scott served two terms as governor of the Sunshine State before getting elected to the Senate in 2018, when DeSantis was first elected governor.

In May, DeSantis signed a law that deleted mentions of climate change from official state policy, ended a requirement for state agencies to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles, and repealed several grant programs that supported conservation efforts and renewable energy — posting on The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter that he was “rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots.” In June 2023, he turned down $346 million in federal funding that would have provided grants to lower and moderate-income Florida homeowners — only to then back down and reverse his decision a year later.

Scott was on Inside Politics with Dana Bash on Friday to discuss the impact that Hurricane Helene had on Florida the night before. The storm made landfall on the state’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4, bringing high winds and a dangerous storm surge.

Helene was “the strongest hurricane on record to strike Florida’s Big Bend” region, Bash noted, before asking Florida’s junior senator about the rescue efforts underway.

“This was a massive storm,” Scott replied, bringing “a massive, massive amount of water” that caused flooding from Naples all the way past Tallahassee to Apalachicola.

After some discussion of rescue efforts and the work to restore power that was just beginning, Bash asked Scott about the size of the hurricane.

“It was 420 miles wide at one point, which appears to be part of a trend where storms are simply bigger than they once were — perhaps because of the changing climate,” said Bash. “What are your thoughts on that?”

“You’re right. Irma was bigger than our state,” replied Scott, referring to a 2017 Category 5 hurricane that caused at least $50 billion in damage and left about 73% of the state without power in its aftermath.

“This was gigantic,” he continued, “and do you know, the other thing that it seems like what’s happening, is the storm surge is getting worse” noting that areas like Taylor County had “over ten foot of storm surge.”

He praised the “unbelievable work” of the National Hurricane Center for “trying to educate people, don’t just think about the wind, think about the water.”

“In Florida now, most of what you die from is water and not from wind,” he explained. “So what’s happening is, is the water coming in and just floods in, and then sucks everything out, including you if you stayed around.”

“So you’re right,” said Scott. “Something is — who knows what the reason is, but something is changing, massive storms, massive storm surge. So we’ve got to figure this out, but here’s — here are the positives. We’re going to do it. We’re going to build more resiliently. We’re going to come back. I live in the most wonderful state, with wonderful people that are very resilient.”

“When you say something’s going on, isn’t it pretty obvious that the climate is changing, and that is changing the size of these storms and making them as big as you just described?” asked Bash.

“Absolutely,” Scott agreed. “Something’s changed and the climate is clearly changing.”

“What we’ve got to do” he continued, is likewhat he did as governor, when he “spent  a whole bunch of money on on resilient sea level rise issues and beach nourishment issues and tried to make our state more resilient.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.