DeSantis asks climate activists: What about nuclear energy?

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – At a press conference to announce his “Framework for Freedom” budget, Gov. Ron DeSantis pondered to reporters why climate change activists are reluctant to promote nuclear energy over wind and solar.

“[They use climate change] to regulate and control everything people do, and we reject that in the state of Florida. They claim climate change for gas stoves – they claim all this stuff,” he said.

“Notice how they don’t like gas, natural gas, they don’t like oil – they say it all should be windmills and solar panels. But what’s the cleanest of all? Nuclear. They almost all opposed nuclear. So they use that to control. So what we don’t do in Florida is embrace things to try to control people,” DeSantis said.

“Take away gas stoves, take away this, all that other stuff? That’s not gonna happen in the state of Florida, and I do think that’s really what they use more than anything else to try to justify exerting control over people in this country, and we’re not gonna let that happen.”

DeSantis’ office previously lambasted climate change activists for caring more about “control, not conservation.”

Bryan Griffin, press secretary for DeSantis, said U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry’s comments at the World Economic Forum “perfectly [sum] up why the popular climate movement is about control, not conservation.”

“I mean, it’s so almost extraterrestrial to think about, quote ‘saving the planet.’ If you said that to most people […] they think you’re just a crazy tree-hugging, lefty, liberal, you know, do-good or whatever, and and there’s no relationship. But really, that’s where we are,” Kerry said.

Part of DeSantis’ budget proposal would nix state taxes on the sale of gas stoves.

“No tax permanently on gas stoves. They want your gas stove, and we’re not gonna let that happen […] It’s just the principle of, you know, this is ridiculous. And they do want to go after it,” DeSantis said. “They got blowback, so they kind of have to back off. They want to go after the gas stoves, and so, we’re saying we want you to be able to buy those.”