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Crist, in a way, is reversing DeSantis’ path to power like a political Benjamin Button. He used to be governor, now he’s a congressman.
Both grew up in Pinellas County. DeSantis grew up in Dunedin while Crist calls St. Petersburg home.
But where DeSantis got 2 percent, Congressman Crist earned a 100 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters last year.
When Crist was governor — well, he had issues. For instance, the guy he hand-picked to run the Florida Republican Party went to prison for using the party’s treasury like his personal ATM.
But his environmental record was so stellar, people dubbed him “Gov. Green.” (I know your folks would rather say he’s “Gov. Pinko” but that’s not what happened.)
 U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
He didn’t just spend money on the state’s environmental resources. He halted a developer-driven move by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to remove the manatee from the state s endangered list.
He didn’t just approve funding for Everglades restoration and make a lot of noise about opposing Big Sugar. He proposed a massive state buyout of U.S. Sugar’s land to use it for restoring the flow of the River of Grass. One news story described this as the “death knell for Big Sugar.”
He even blocked a threat to the Everglades before it was built. At his urging, the Public Service Commission rejected a plan by the state s largest utility, Florida Power Light, to build a $5.7 billion coal-fired power plant near Everglades National Park. (Meanwhile DeSantis’ Public Service Commission has given Florida Power Might — er, sorry, Light — almost everything it’s wanted.)
Speaking of FPL, you know that net-metering bill DeSantis vetoed recently that spared the state’s solar industry (although he said he was only doing it because of the cost)? Crist signed the bill creating solar net-metering in the first place.
And, unlike Scott (and DeSantis), he was never afraid to say the words “climate change.”
In his first State of the State address in 2007, Crist called climate change one of the most important issues that we will face this century. He pledged to bring together the brightest minds and place our state at the forefront of a growing worldwide movement to reduce greenhouse gases.
He convened a climate-change summit in Miami that attracted 600 participants. One was then-California Gov. Arnold “Ah-nold” Schwarzenegger, who proclaimed Crist a real-life action hero.
As if to prove that point, Crist signed a series of executive orders imposing far-reaching changes in the state s energy policies, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2025 and mandating that statewide building codes seek a 15 percent energy-efficiency increase.
I think that as a state, beautiful as Florida is, we need to be a leader controlling climate change and protecting our natural resources, Crist said then. It s vital to Florida s future.
He even persuaded the Florida Legislature to pass a bill calling for the state to pursue “market-based solutions” to reduce greenhouse gases. In other words, Florida was going to set up a cap-and-trade system to limit emissions from power companies and other polluters, but also create a marketplace through which they can buy or trade credits to go over the limit.
But then — here’s where you catch him! — Crist lost interest in running Florida.
‘It’s Charlie’s fault’
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