Dem measure seeks to protect officials who mention climate change

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is using the budget process to hit home-state Gov. Rick Scott (R) for allegedly prohibiting state workers from using the term “global warming.”

Nelson offered an amendment to protect the ability of federal employees to talk about global warming. 

“We have all read news reports at the state level, at the local level, and maybe even at the federal level,” he said during a floor speech Thursday. “Some folks are trying to muzzle scientists about speaking on the science involving the oceans, the atmosphere, climate and the weather.”

{mosads}Earlier this month, the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting found that Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection has been forbidden from using the terms “climate change” and “global warming” in official records.

The report quotes a number of former employees and links the policy change to Scott’s tenure. 

Scott has denied the charge, but he remains publicly unconvinced about global warming. 

Nelson, a former astronaut, recalled looking out the window of a spacecraft and realizing how many things humans still do not understand about the Earth.

“There’s a lot about it that we don’t know, but there’s a lot about it that we can in fact measure scientifically,” he said.

“But for some reason, there is some commentary going on in America today that we want to muzzle our scientists.”

Nelson had been floated as a potential challenger to Scott in 2014, but he ultimately didn’t run.

Other senators are also pushing climate-related amendments to the Senate budget, which will be voted on during a marathon session Thursday and into early Friday morning. 

Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii) and Ed Markey (Mass.) have all filed amendments that would recognize that climate change is caused by humans.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) has also introduced an amendment that calls for the United States not to sign an international environmental agreement that would do “serious harm” to the American economy. Capito criticized the deal that President Obama struck with China last year to cut greenhouse gases as potentially harmful.

“That agreement requires significant short-term carbon emission reductions here in the United States, but China is allowed to continue increasing its carbon emissions until 2030,” she said on the Senate floor Thursday.

“That disparity could place the United States at a significant economic disadvantage.”