TALLAHASSEE — Florida cut more environmental protection jobs than any other state in the past 15 years, despite the challenges posed by increasingly intense hurricanes and sea level rise, according to a newly released national report.

The state cut 394 jobs, or 19% of full-time positions, at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from 2010 to 2024, according to the Environmental Impact Project’s latest report, released Wednesday.

Florida also saw environmental spending cut by 7% during that same time frame.

“This has a huge impact on Florida’s ability to protect and preserve our state’s unique and iconic natural environment, not to mention preventing toxic pollution from impacting public health,” said Susannah Randolph, Sierra Club Florida chapter director, in response to the report. “Budgets are reflections of priorities. If protecting Florida’s environment and public health is a priority, it would be funded, not cut.”

The cuts reflect policy changes in the state under two Republican governors, Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis.

The report’s authors say 27 states made budget cuts to their environmental protection agencies. That is a worrisome trend, they argue, when the Trump administration wants to make deep cuts to the federal Environmental Protection Agency with the idea states can take over those oversight duties.

“Instead of fulfilling their responsibilities to protect residents, too many states like Florida are leaving a vacuum of leadership, which is leaving communities vulnerable to deadly pollution,” said Drew Ball, southeast campaigns director for the National Resource Defense Council, in a statement released along with the report.

Florida has emphasized spending money on restoring the Everglades and opposing offshore drilling, but it has been criticized for cutting back on enforcement and inspections, rolling back regulations and de-emphasizing the impacts of climate change even as the state has been battered by severe storms that caused record flooding.

“Opposing offshore drilling and supporting funding for the Everglades are important but without protection of our rivers, springs, wildlife, and wild spaces, those efforts will ultimately be undermined,” Randolph said. “Everything is connected.”

The DEP did not provide a comment for this story.

In 2024, DeSantis signed a bill eliminating most references to climate change from state law, reversing 16 years of policy with new legislation that critics say also undermined efforts to develop alternative energy sources.

Around the same time, the state advised textbook authors that they would have to remove references to the phrase “climate change” or their books would be rejected for use in Florida’s public schools. They were also told to include citations to back up statements that “human activity” caused climate change and cut a “political statement” urging governments to take action to stop climate change.

Also, in August of that year, many Floridians raised alarm bells when DEP plans, leaked to the press, showed the agency was considering “The Great Outdoor initiative,” which called for large-scale commercial development — hotels, golf courses and pickleball courts — within several state parks. It was scuttled in the face of public outcry, and DeSantis signed a bill this year prohibiting golf courses and resorts in state parks.

“After last year’s massive statewide protests calling for protection of our state parks, it doesn’t take much to see that Florida voters of all walks of life want environmental protection prioritized,” Randolph said.

Roughly two-thirds of the states cut 3,725 jobs from 2010 to 2024, the report found. While Florida had the largest number of jobs eliminated, dropping DEP’s full-time workforce from 2,096 to 1,702, the highest percentage of cuts were made by North Carolina at 32%, Connecticut at 36%, Arizona at 25% and Louisiana at 24%.

Seven states steeply reduced their pollution control budgets — including Texas, with its rapidly growing oil and gas industry — when adjusted for inflation. Mississippi led with 71%, followed by South Dakota with 61% and Connecticut at 51%.

Not all the cuts broke neatly along political lines. Connecticut, New York and Illinois are strong Democrat enclaves that saw double-digit cuts in environmental protection budgets.

But seven of the 10 states with the largest percent cuts to their environmental agencies had Republican governors for most of those 15 years.

On the other hand, blue states saw huge increases in environmental protection funding and staffing. California grew its budget by more than 350% while its greenhouse gas emissions fell and its economic productivity grew, the report said. Colorado and Vermont each increased their environmental spending by more than 100%.

Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said enforcement of environmental regulations depend on robust state agencies “that have the resources they need to do their jobs.” The cuts documented by the study and more cuts at the federal level “will only put more Americans at risk.”