By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo
pledges to beef up her environmental initiatives if she’s elected to a second
term.
During an Aug. 7 press event at the
downtown Providence headquarters of Deepwater Wind, Raimondo spoke about
growing jobs and manufacturing in the offshore wind industry. But she also
promised to “pursue” binding and enforceable reductions in carbon emissions.
Raimondo’s Vision for Rhode Island’s Clean
Energy Future doesn’t offer specifics on emission targets or
how they will be imposed.
ecoRI News wasn’t invited to the
press event, but in a story by Rhode
Island Public Radio, Raimondo said the state’s use of renewable energy was less
than 5 percent when she took office and is on its way to 40 percent by 2020.
Raimondo’s media team was unable to
provide a full explanation of the numbers, but achieving 40 percent will likely
be wiped out if the nearly 1,000-megawatt fossil-fuel power plant proposed for
Burrillville is built by its target date of 2022.
Building the Clear River Energy Center or any other new fossil-fuel power plant, no matter how efficient, simply can’t happen, according to reams of climate research.
A recent report published by IOP suggests that in order to avoid a 2-degree Celsius global increase in temperature all existing proposed power plants must not be built.
“Even if all currently planned
projects are immediately suspended, up to 20 percent of global fossil-fuel
generation capacity would still have to be stranded (that is, prematurely
decommissioned, underutilized, or subject to costly retrofitting) if humanity
is to meet the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement,” according to the
May report.
In June, Raimondo announced Rhode
Island’s participation in the United States Climate Alliance.
So far, 16 states and Puerto Rico have agreed to advance the goals of the Paris
Agreement, such as reducing carbon pollution and cutting greenhouse-gas
emissions by at least 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
The proposed Clear River Energy
Center is expected to emit about 2.8 million tons of carbon dioxide annually
when burning natural gas and diesel fuel. That output excludes more potent
emissions from extraction, transportation, and storage of natural gas.
The developer, Chicago-based
Invenergy Thermal Development LLC, argues that the power plant will displace
more-polluting energy from facilities that run on oil and coal. But the Clear
River Energy Center could operate for 50 years, well past the time when most
climate experts say the energy sector should be free from fossil fuels.
Also, the accounting method used by
Invenergy to calculate the emission reductions relies on regional consumption
of electricity instead of a model that calculates Rhode Island’s independent
production of power.
Consumption-based accounting spreads the climate emissions across the six New England states, making it much easier for Rhode Island to achieve emission-reduction goals.
Consumption-based accounting spreads the climate emissions across the six New England states, making it much easier for Rhode Island to achieve emission-reduction goals.
Thus, according to Timmons Roberts,
an expert witness in the Burrillville power-plant siting process and professor
of environmental studies at Brown University, “Climate change is an emergency.
Using consumption-based accounting provides an excuse to avoid responding to the emergency in the ways that we need to respond.”
Using consumption-based accounting provides an excuse to avoid responding to the emergency in the ways that we need to respond.”
Roberts said he would like to see
Rhode Island focus on reducing emissions from the transportation sector, the
second-largest source of greenhouse-gas emissions in the state.
One option, he said, is to revive Rhode Island’s participation in the the 11-state Transportation & Climate Initiative, a collaboration that develops ways to curb emissions across all parts of the transportation sector.
One option, he said, is to revive Rhode Island’s participation in the the 11-state Transportation & Climate Initiative, a collaboration that develops ways to curb emissions across all parts of the transportation sector.
Raimondo’s energy plan, however,
seeks a buildout of shipping infrastructure, including 100 acres at the Port of
Quonset to expand offshore wind development. This plan coincides with new
funding for developing a new marine highway for
shipping containers between Rhode Island, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Newark, N.J.
Raimondo’s second-term policy
proposal on renewable energy indirectly addresses climate change by increasing
infrastructure, manufacturing, and jobs that support the offshore wind energy.
“Rhode Island has a long, proud
history of leading in manufacturing expertise and innovation. Just as we once
led the country in jewelry, textiles, and other legacy manufacturing, we will
once again lead the way in growing and sustaining the manufacturing industry
and workforce so necessary to the successful deployment,” according to the
governor’s energy plan.