House Speaker Marco Rubio has finally decided to part ways with the populist governor from his own party, at least when global warming is the issue.
In a stern op-ed published today in Rubio's hometown paper, the West Miami Republican calls Gov. Charlie Crist's aim to impose caps on carbon emissions from Florida tail pipes and smoke stacks "European-style big government mandates."
He predicts the governor's executive orders this month will "fail to achieve their desired result," and "carry actual negative consequences" including higher utility prices.
"Floridians already are paying too much in taxes and insurance. The last thing we need is higher utility bills," he wrote.
Crist hosted a two-day climate change summit in Miami earlier this month where he ordered targets for reducing Florida's greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990-levels over the next four decades.
Utilities have quietly started grumbling, former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (remember him?) has said Crist must be under the spell of Al Gore and his Hollywood allies, and now Rubio, the conservative standard-bearer for Jeb Bush in the Legislature, is taking his turn.
Read Rubio's full piece here.
Crist said Wednesday he had read the op-ed and was "encouraged" by it.
"I'm glad that he recognizes that this is a big, bold initiative that we need to be focused on."