TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Today Sierra Club Florida sent Governor Ron DeSantis a letter urging him to veto HB 433, “Employment Regulations.”
If signed into law, HB 433 would preempt local governments’ ability to pass protections for workers in extreme heat at a time when climate change is pushing record temperatures higher year after year. Of the many threats climate change poses to Florida’s economy and well-being–including rising insurance rates and storms– the impact of extreme heat is one of the biggest.
In 2022, heat exposure in the U.S. led to the loss of almost half a trillion potential labor hours, a significant increase from previous years. In 2021, a report by The Atlantic Council found that loss of productivity from heat led to a loss of about $100 billion dollars a year in the United States. The same report concluded that “without meaningful action to reduce emissions and/or adapt to extreme heat, labor productivity losses could double to nearly $200 billion by 2030 and reach $500 billion by 2050.” These impacts will fall on the shoulders of working-class Floridians at a time when Florida is also growing disproportionately less affordable compared to the rest of the nation.
Additionally, extreme heat is already a leading weather-related cause of death and workplace injury across the country. In the United States, extreme heat was estimated to be the cause of about 120,000 workplace injuries every year, and without action, that number could rise to about 450,000 per year in 2050. From 2019 to 2022, heat related deaths rose a staggering 88% in Florida. These deaths and injuries also disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
Sierra Club Florida Political Director Luigi Guadarrama said, “Governor DeSantis himself has admitted that ‘Florida’s economic success is tied to our environment,’ yet the legislature continues to produce bills that threaten the well-being of both. We cannot and will not ignore the devastating impact that this bill will have on our economy and the health of hard-working Floridians.”
Sierra Club Florida Executive Committee Chair James Scott said, “The cost of inaction on climate change is ethically intolerable and economically unsustainable. Preventing local governments from taking action will cost Floridians their paychecks and their lives. While big business and big-government Tallahassee legislators may choose to ignore that, Florida won’t.”
Inaction on climate change is costly. Sierra Club Florida urges Governor DeSantis to take this threat to our economy and our workers seriously, and veto HB 433.
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