Due mostly to the fact that he is the governor of a state whose economy depends on clean water and unspoiled beaches, DeSantis is about as close to an environmentalist as you can find in the GOP. Not that he would admit it, of course. But plenty of people in Florida will give him credit for measures protecting water quality, and he managed to slip some money into the state budget for climate change adaptation without any fanfare.
The problem is that this sort of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to climate change will expose him to attacks from both the left and the right. Trump, who completely dismisses climate change as a Chinese hoax, will say that real men love fossil fuels and that DeSantis is weak on the issue. Most of the base will follow him on that point. The Democrats, on the other hand, will complain that he doesn’t take climate change seriously enough.
In short, this issue is going to be an albatross for him from this point forward, and there is no obvious way out. Expect him to argue that all energy sources matter and wrap himself in the energy independence flag to minimize the damage.