Under Bush, state spending on the environment increased, and he won praise for his efforts to restore the Everglades. But there’s a “but.”
“His most ambitious environmental undertaking, overseeing Florida’s half of an $11 billion state-federal effort to restore the Everglades, brought him praise from dozens of environmental groups during his first term – though that relationship later turned caustic after those same greens accused him of backtracking on promises to protect the great marsh from pollution by Big Sugar,” Politico reports.
On climate change, he’s not at the forefront of the issue, but has warned conservatives not to be seen as “anti-science.”
“He was a green,” Eric Draper, the executive director of the National Audubon Society’s Florida chapter, tells Politico. “I actually miss him. He was one of Florida’s most effective governors, and I’m telling you that as a Democrat.”
