By Charles E. Roop
Guess what today is? Earth Day, you rednecks. Just kidding. But seriously, it’s Earth Day.
There was an interesting article in today’s Gainesville Sun about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) and how is stance on global warming is "novel" in the GOP. From the Gainesville Sun/NYT Regional Newspaper Group…
With "Stop global warming”
bracelets dangling from his wrist, Gov. Charlie Crist took his seat at
the O’Connell Center [at the University of Florida] between the two women who would soon embrace him
in a hug before a row of television cameras: rock star and
environmental activist Sheryl Crow and Laurie David, producer of the Al
Gore documentary on global warming.
This
seat might rank near the bottom on the comfort scale for a Republican
governor of Florida – even one who is a fan of Crow’s hit song "Soak Up
the Sun.”
Crist, however, feels at home.
"It’s not a
Democrat or Republican issue,” he told a news conference at the
University of Florida for the Stop Global Warming college tour at the
Phillips Center. "It’s a right or wrong issue and this is what’s right
to do.”
Crist is the first governor in the South and one of a handful of Republicans nationally to so publicly get behind the issue of global warming – an issue the Republican presidential administration denied existed
until recently, and which Crist’s predecessor, Jeb Bush, paid little
attention to.
In doing so, analysts say, Crist is taking his
moderate politics to the national stage and opening the door to
environmental issues marginalized under the state’s previous
administration.
When I first heard about his presence at the Stop Global Warming tour in Gainesville on Monday, I was quite surprised. Then again, in some ways, I was not. I did not vote for Crist last fall, but his moderate stance on a lot of issues has made me feel much better about him. In fact, I like the man. I also appreciate his stance and steps he wants to take about the environment. But why? This could be a reason…
Crist’s passion for protecting the environment is personal and dates to
1971, when he was president of the student council at Riviera Middle
School in St. Petersburg. He said he led his class to donate $100 to
the city council to start the city’s first recycling program.
As
a state senator, he was an avid proponent for the state’s net ban,
something he felt strongly about because as a boy he remembered fishing
with his father and, as he grew older, noticed there were fewer fish.
Crist
hopes to lead the state to conserve energy by example. Earlier this
month he volunteered the governor’s mansion for an energy audit and
decided to outfit the 50-year-old Greek Revival with high-efficiency
fluorescent light bulbs and solar panels, including a set to heat his
pool. The upfront cost is expected to be recouped in five to seven
years.
His car is an ethanol-fueled Chevy Tahoe, which his aides
dutifully drive past regular gas stations to Tallahassee’s single
ethanol station.
Crist has not proposed as much as other states have (i.e. California’s own cap on CO2 emissions), but he has proposed $68 million of the state’s budget to reduce global warming. How exactly the money will be spent is unclear.
Yet, as he demonstrated at the rally in Gainesville, Crist is reaching out to environmentalists.
Of course, you have some…political crack-pipes like State Rep. Dennis Baxley (R-"Redneckville") that think "We would be better off approaching world hunger or bringing peace to the Middle East," he said in the article. "I’m not going to spend the state budget on global warming."
Hopefully, common sense will rule and things can be done about global warming. I have to say, I like Crist a lot more than I did last November for this and many other issues.
