In Florida's Senate race, climate-change policies come under scrutiny after deadly hurricanes

The devastating hurricanes that made landfall in Florida less than six weeks before the November elections killed more than 230 people across the Southeast and caused an eye-popping $50 billion in damages each, but how the climate-change-fueled destruction will play out in the state’s U.S. Senate race is unclear.

The havoc brought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton is focusing attention on the environmental records of Republican Sen. Rick Scott and his Democratic challenger, former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, in the final days of their campaigns, especially their climate change policies.

The burning of fossil fuels has made storms wetter and windier with Helene's rainfall about 10% heavier due to climate change and Milton's rainfall 20% to 30% more intense and about twice as likely in today’s climate than in the pre-industrial age, according to the scientists at the World Weather Attribution group.

Scott, who served two terms as Florida’s governor, defeated Democrat Bill Nelson narrowly in 2018 to win the Senate seat. He may try to replace outgoing Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who is stepping down from the position and whom Scott challenged unsuccessfully once before.

Mucarsel-Powell, a senior advisor at the gun control group Giffords, served in the House for a single term. She was elected in 2018.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Once considered a swing state, Florida now has 1 million more registered Republican voters than Democrats and the Cook Political Report rates the race as a likely Republican win. An Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey released on Wednesday found Scott with a 4-point lead over Mucarsel-Powell.

At the same time, a Florida Atlantic University survey last week found that nearly 52% of respondents said they would be likely to vote for a candidate with a record of reducing climate impacts.    

Here is a look at their positions on climate change.

Rick Scott

Scott now acknowledges that “the climate is changing” after famously saying a decade earlier on the topic of global warming, “I’m not a scientist.” Asked on CNN whether Hurricane Helene was part of trend of bigger storms because of climate change, he responded, “Who knows what the reason is, but something is changing. Massive storms. Massive storm surge. So we’ve got to figure this out.”

Pressed, he said, “The climate is clearly changing. And when I was governor I spent a whole bunch of money on resiliency, sea level rise issues and beach re-nourishment issues and trying to make our state more resilient. So what we’ve got to do is we know things are changing. We’ve got to figure out do how do we react to that?”

His response earned him a demonstration by members of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, who criticized his positions on climate change and the more than $500,000 he has received from the oil and gas industries, according to Open Secrets, which tracks money in U.S. politics.

The Sunshine State has significant potential for solar energy, the U.S. Energy Information Administration notes, but in 2022, natural gas fueled about three-fourths of the state’s in-state net electricity generation. Florida is the second-largest producer of electricity in the country, after Texas.

During his two terms as governor, Scott worked to restore the Everglades, when his administration supported committing more than a billion dollars over a decade to curb discharges into rivers and lakes and restore springs, but he also has been faulted for promoting business interests at the expense of the environment.

As governor he cut budgets for water management and curbed the state’s oversight of local planning decisions by eliminating the state's growth management agency, against the advice of environmentalists. He was accused of forbidding staff at the Department of Environment Protection from using the words “climate change” in reports, a charge he has denied. In 2014, a group of climate scientists met with him to talk about global warming, and its members have remained critical of him since then. 

“I think he’s kind of in denial about the effects that climate change are going to have on the economy and the well-being of the United States and Florida,” Jeff Chanton, a climate scientist at Florida State University, who was among those who met with Scott, told Inside Climate News. “And I would say that is pretty short-sighted because Florida is one of the more vulnerable states in the country to climate change.”

Chanton told NBC that there was strong evidence in the scientific literature that the warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean have resulted in stronger hurricanes such as Helene and Milton.

"The stronger storm surge, superimposed upon higher sea levels which are also associated with warming trends, result in devastating effects along the Florida coast," he said.

During Scott’s first term in the Senate, he voted against both of the Biden administration’s signature climate change initiatives, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which will lower energy use in Florida and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, with its billions for renewable energy, including solar panels and wind turbines.

Although Scott opposed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, PolitiFact noted that he nonetheless took credit for helping to secure the money that the law allocated to protect the Everglades.

Overall, the bill includes $47 billion to improve the climate resiliency of the country’s infrastructure, $73 billion to improve the country’s electricity grid to help it carry renewable energy, $7.5 billion for electric vehicles and money for other projects.The White House noted that in the decade between 2010 and 2020, Florida experienced 22 instances of extreme weather that cost the state up to $100 billion in damages. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that the infrastructure law will support more than 700,000 news jobs a year.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes $369 billion in tax credits for the production of solar and wind energy equipment and the purchase of electric vehicles, FactCheck.org accused of Scott wrongly claiming the bill would raise taxes by $700 billion.

In statement to NBC, Scott’s campaign said, “Senator Scott has been consistently clear that taking care of the planet and pursuing economic prosperity are objectives that can and must be pursued simultaneously.

"Protecting Florida's environmental treasures is one of the few areas where there's bipartisan agreement in our state, so it’s sad to see Debbie and the Democrats try to politicize this in the midst of a crisis in our state. It’s one of the many reasons voters will reject her in November.

“The climate is changing, and that’s why Senator Scott made important investments to take care of the environment and address rising sea levels and other impacts as Governor. Both parties need to work together to build a stronger economy and invest in priorities like protecting our environment and natural treasures.”

Paul Hennessy/Anadolu via Getty Images

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell

Mucarsel-Powell, while in the House, voted for disaster relief funding and infrastructure projects to make Florida more resilient to climate change. The League of Conservation Voters awarded her a 98% on pro-environment votes, from increasing funding for renewable energy to investing in climate-resilient infrastructure. 

After Hurricane Irma in 2017, she worked to obtain $100 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA and $200 million for restoration of the Everglades. She focused on helping coastal communities adapt and restoring coral reefs.

She faulted Scott for voting against the infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act and called him a “strong ally to the fossil fuel industry.”

She also criticized his vote against federal relief for Florida in 2022, when it was included in a short-term spending bill to keep the federal government operating. Scott said in a statement that he wanted the aid to be separated from the spending bill. 

In statement to NBC, Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign said, “Right now, Floridians across our state are still picking up the pieces from back to back hurricanes while continuing to face skyrocketing home insurance rates. Meanwhile, Rick Scott took $3 million from the insurance industry, voted against billions in funding for climate resiliency, and even voted against billions in disaster relief funding."

"When he was governor, ‘Red Tide Rick’ oversaw the biggest fish kill in the history of our state and literally banned the use of the term ‘climate change’. He will never be the Senator who will protect our state, but I will. Unlike Rick Scott, I’ll fight to lower insurance premiums, get FEMA the funds they need, and deliver funding for climate resiliency when I’m in the Senate.”