Florida: Republican 'green governor' seeks to reverse predecessor's legacy

Ron DeSantis has broken with fellow Republican Rick Scott in seeking to oust officials who authorised controversial land deal

Barely a week after positioning himself as the new champion of Florida's polluted waterways and beaches, the new Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is facing an early test of the environmental credentials that have put him at odds with his predecessor, Rick Scott.

DeSantis has called for the mass resignation of Scott's hand-picked team of water policy managers, after they defied his request to delay awarding an eight-year land lease extension to the sugar industry giant Florida Crystals in the fragile Everglades wetlands. The land, south of Lake Okeechobee, is earmarked for a $1.6bn clean-water storage reservoir that DeSantis wants completed within four years, to hasten restoration of the state's famous River of Grass.