A lesson in leadership.
Bloomberg (7/12/23) reports: "Florida Republican Governor and 2024 presidential contender Ron DeSantis quietly rejected hundreds of millions of dollars in federal energy funding, as the Biden administration touts the benefits of its marquee climate law on the campaign trail in battleground states. The funding, totaling about $377 million, included hundreds of millions of dollars for energy-efficiency rebates and electrification as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as money from the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that became law in 2021. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’s Office of Energy notified the Energy Department last month it was “respectfully” withdrawing applications for the funds after DeSantis issued a line-item veto for a $5 million federal grant for the state to set up programs to distribute the rebates. The move comes as US President Joe Biden and others have taken to the road to show how funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and other administration policies are helping Republican states, even as every single Republican voted against approving his signature climate law - which included some $374 billion in funding for clean-energy programs and tax credits. It also comes amid Republican backlash against 'woke' energy-efficiency standards, including from DeSantis himself who has proposed spending millions of dollars to enact tax credits for gas stoves."
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