For 10 years Rep. Art Handy,
D-Cranston, has sponsored a bill that establishes carbon-emission-reduction
goals and, most importantly, imposes penalties for failing to achieve them.
The state's current targets for
cutting greenhouse gases, laid out by the Resilient Rhode Island Act of
2014, lack any enforcement tools — a flaw that environmentalists
fear will prevent the Ocean State from meeting its targets, such as an 80
percent cut in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.
Tracking state carbon goals is
currently the work of the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council (EC4),
but the committee of state agency officials has no obligation to meet those
targets and, so far, has offered few plans for achieving them.
The latest version of the Rhode Island Global Warming
Solutions Act, however, makes those emissions cuts mandatory,
offering where and how to curb carbon emissions.
“It puts meat on the bones in a way that goes toward getting our carbon footprint under control,” Handy said during a March 15 House hearing for his bill.
In 2008, Handy based his first bill
on the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act,
which passed that year. The Massachusetts law assesses fines for failing to
meet reduction targets.
Connecticut passed its Global Warming Solutions Act in 2017 with stringent benchmarks. The Resilient Rhode Island Act only set aspirational goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Gov. Gina Raimondo’s recent promise to comply with the goals of the Paris climate accord also lacks enforcement.
Connecticut passed its Global Warming Solutions Act in 2017 with stringent benchmarks. The Resilient Rhode Island Act only set aspirational goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Gov. Gina Raimondo’s recent promise to comply with the goals of the Paris climate accord also lacks enforcement.
“These are goals. These are
aspirations. They’re not mandatory. They are not legally enforceable,” said
Jerry Elmer, senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation.
Elmer noted that mandating goals in
Massachusetts has dramatically expanded the local solar industry, making it
second in the country for solar jobs. The Bay State law also established a
declining limit on emissions from power plants.
Massachusetts continues to get
serious about climate change. Its Legislature has committees that address the
issue, such as the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change. Last
month, the committee introduced a bill that sets a goal of making the state 100
percent reliant on renewable energy by 2050.
Elmer noted that Rhode Island’s
current programs for curbing emissions focus on renewable energy and
energy-efficiency incentives but don’t do much to curtail the state’s largest
emitter of greenhouse gases, the transportation sector.
The commercial and residential
building sector is also a large emitter of climate emissions. Any plan
therefore must focus on heating new and existing buildings with electric heat,
Elmer said.
Handy's Rhode Island Global Warming
Solutions Act concentrates on these high-emission sectors. According to the
bill, each sector would be overseen by a state agency or department that must
devise a plan to achieve greenhouse-gas reductions. The bill also includes
penalties for failing to achieve them.
The bill assigns the Office of Energy Resources (OER) to address the electricity sector. The Department of Transportation (DOT) would oversee the transportation and heating sectors, and the state building commissioner would oversee the construction sector. The director of the Department of Administration would ensure compliance by each department.
The bill assigns the Office of Energy Resources (OER) to address the electricity sector. The Department of Transportation (DOT) would oversee the transportation and heating sectors, and the state building commissioner would oversee the construction sector. The director of the Department of Administration would ensure compliance by each department.
OER, DOT and the building
commissioner would be required to consider a carbon tax as part of their
carbon-reduction plan. A carbon tax puts a fee on all fossil fuels entering the
state.
A portion of the money raised would be returned to residents and businesses.
The remainder would subsidize renewable-energy and energy-efficiency projects. Other market-based solutions are encouraged, such as partnering with the multi-state cap-and-trade program, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
A portion of the money raised would be returned to residents and businesses.
The remainder would subsidize renewable-energy and energy-efficiency projects. Other market-based solutions are encouraged, such as partnering with the multi-state cap-and-trade program, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
The bill would require the building
sector to stop heating new buildings with fossil fuels by 2035, and 25 percent
of existing buildings would have to convert to electric heat by 2035.
The bill also includes a provision
that allows Rhode Island to merge its reduction plan with neighboring states
and Canadian provinces, as long as the reduction goals are equally stringent.
Each agency would be required to
hold public hearings for its emission-reduction plans. The ultimate enforcement
of the plans would be through legal action in Superior Court.
Opponents noted that achieving the
goals would require heavy taxes on fossils fuels and taxes on vehicles that run
on them.
“Our fear is that we continue to
shift over and over to electric, it’s going to get more expensive to do
business here,” said Lenette Forry of the Northern
Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce. “If that’s the case, this bill may
achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas but that’s because it’s our fear
that businesses won’t be here.”
Brown University professor and
climate-policy expert J. Timmons Roberts said Massachusetts proves that a
strong climate-reduction plan has the opposite effect.
“I think a lot of the economic
arguments can be put to rest on the basis that we can see what’s going on with
the Massachusetts economy. We would love to have that kind of economic growth
in this state,” Roberts said. "And it’s created quite a lot of jobs as
they have had to meet the targets in the their Global Warming Solution Act of
2008.”
He also noted that recent research
shows that carbon emissions should be reduced sooner then suggested in the
Resilient Rhode Island Act. Instead of an 80 percent reduction in emissions by
2050, all greenhouse-gas emissions should eliminated by 2035 or 2040, he said.
Nevertheless, Roberts said, the
state's current targets should be kept so that the bill can advance and the
General Assembly can adopt a plan with defined rules.
“I see this as an accountability
bill,” Roberts said. “It allows the Legislature to say to the executive branch,
‘How are you going to meet the targets that you have supported many times in
many speeches and many executive orders? Are you really going meet those
targets?’”
In addition to the Northern Rhode
Island Chamber of Commerce, the bill is opposed by the Alliance of Automobile
Manufactures, the Rhode Island Builders Association and National Grid.
In addition to CLF, the
Environmental Council of Rhode Island supports the bill.
The bill was held for further study.