Sierra Club pushes back after Haley cites past praise of DeSantis

Environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club disavowed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in response to a moment at Wednesday’s GOP debate in which former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley pointed to its past praise of her rival.

Haley called the Florida governor “a liberal when it comes to the environment” in the third debate, pointing to his pledge to ban fracking in the state and his opposition to offshore oil drilling. Florida voters voted to ban offshore drilling in a ballot initiative, while DeSantis has said fracking poses a danger to Florida due to the state’s geologic composition.

Haley specifically cited the Sierra Club’s past praise for DeSantis on the conservation of the Everglades.

“You’re trying to make up for it and act like you weren’t a liberal when it comes to the environment … just own it if that’s the case,” Haley said as DeSantis called to ramp up domestic fossil fuel production and dismantle Biden administration environmental policies.

“It should surprise no one that the Republican primary is a race to prove who wants to destroy our clean air and water and fuel the climate crisis the most,” Deputy Sierra Club Communications Director Jonathon Berman tweeted following the debate exchange.

“Oh, and fwiw, DeSantis received an F from the Sierra Club,” he added.

Despite the advocacy group’s praise of DeSantis on the Everglades issue, it has long had an adversarial relationship with him more broadly. In addition to the F grade, the group gave him a D-minus in 2022. The organization has also condemned him for moves like signing legislation that restricts municipalities’ capacity to transition to renewable energy, and endorsed his Democratic opponents, Andrew Gillum and Charlie Crist, in 2018 and 2022, respectively.

DeSantis, for his part, has blasted the group as “far left-wing” and “about partisanship,” saying at a New Hampshire event that it failed to give him proper credit on issues like defying the state’s powerful sugar industry.

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