"Florida may be “ground zero” for climate change, but some environmentalists see the DeSantis administration’s rejection of the money as a partisan move."
"ORLANDO, Fla.—Florida gave up $3 million in federal grant funding and as much as $500 million more by declining to participate in a Biden administration program aimed at helping states address the human-caused emissions warming the global climate.
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program represents one of the largest shares of funding under the Inflation Reduction Act. The program offers $5 billion for states, municipalities, tribes and other governments to plan and carry out projects targeting greenhouse gas emissions.
Forty-five states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, dozens of municipalities, four territories and more than 200 tribes submitted Priority Climate Action Plans under the first phase of the program. Together the plans convey a mosaic of community priorities as they help drive a major federal investment in the transition to cleaner energy, said Rachel Patterson, state policy advisor at Evergreen Action, a nonprofit focused on federal and state climate policy.
Florida was one of five states that did not submit a climate action plan. That decision excludes them from $3 million in initial federal grant funding each and disqualifies them from the program’s second phase, which makes $4.6 billion available to implement the plans, with grants worth up to $500 million each. The other states that did not submit plans were Iowa, Kentucky, South Dakota and Wyoming, although Florida stands out as especially vulnerable, Patterson said."
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