Florida gov. denies he banned employees from using ‘climate change’

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) denied a report that his environmental agency prohibited employees from using terms like “climate change” and “global warming” in official communications.

The report from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting quoted multiple former employees, consultants and others from the Department of Environmental Protection who confirmed that the terms were banned when Scott took over in 2011.

{mosads}“It’s not true,” Scott said of the report Monday, according to the Miami Herald.

Scott refused to directly answer whether he believes the scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity are causing climate change. He instead focused on environmental problems in the low-lying state that his administration has tried to address, like beach erosion and flood mitigation.

“Let’s look at what we’ve accomplished,” he said. “We’ve had significant investments in beach renourishment, in flood mitigation. Look at what we’ve done with the Everglades: We settled a lawsuit over the Everglades … We put money in the Tamiami Trail, to raise that, to push water south. We’ve had — I think we’ve had record investments in our springs.”

He was asked three more times about climate change and declined to directly answer each time.

Asked about climate change last year, Scott said that he was “not a scientist.”

The Florida Democratic Party used the Center for Investigative Reporting story Monday to raise money, telling supporters in an e-mail, “is misleading Floridians about how dangerous this problem is,” and asking potential donors to “help us hold him accountable,” according to the Herald.