McKee, Kalus Tackle Environmental Issues
at Annual Audubon Meeting
By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff
 |
| Gubernatorial candidates Ashley Kalus and Gov. Dan McKee spoke at the Audubon Society of Rhode Island's annual meeting. Each candidate outlined their environmental agenda. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI News) |
The gubernatorial
candidates made pitches to members of the environment-focused education and
advocacy group and fielded questions from ecoRI News Editor Bonnie Phillips.
Incumbent Democrat
McKee used his 10-minute speech to discuss his record over the past 20 months
as governor and the value of building on that work in a new term, while Kalus,
a Republican, took her allotted time to pinpoint areas of environmental policy
that she said could use improvement, including the 2021 Act on Climate law.
McKee rattled off a
list of some of his
environmentally focused accomplishments, including:
- Millions of dollars of planned improvements for
the Port of Galilee, which
he said have inspired other private investments.
- $35 million invested in a seaport
in East Providence.
- An e-bike rebate program named after journalist Erica Niedowski, a
former McKee staffer who died in 2020 at the age of 46.
- Legislation that sets a drinking water standard for
PFAS and goals to end the manufacturing and use of food packaging containing
the “forever chemicals.”
- Increased procurement of energy from
offshore wind facilities, which McKee estimated could power 500,000 homes.
“We balance … the economic opportunities for our families with the environment,” he said.
McKee also mentioned
signing the Act on Climate legislation, which sets a 2050 deadline for the
state to reach net-zero carbon emissions.
Kalus listed different
climate goals and priorities for a potential tenure as governor:
- Preserving watersheds, coastline, meadows, and
woodlands to help maintain habitat for wildlife.
- Expanding offshore renewable energy, including floating
solar kinetic power from wave technology and offshore wind power.
- Updating Rhode Island’s infrastructure to support more
electric cars.
- Recycling tax credit for companies that recycle.
- Implementing
resiliency plans on the municipal level.
Kalus also said she
did not believe that the goals set by Act on Climate will be met by the target
deadlines.
“We need a realistic
plan. I don’t believe that we have that right now,” she said. “I don’t think
there’s a way that we can get there in the time frame that we need, and we also
do need to be focusing on mitigation.”
Both candidates said
they support expanding offshore wind facilities and solar energy to help reduce
carbon emissions.
When asked about
forest loss related to solar development and whether he would support
legislation that tries to protect forests and open space, McKee said, “We’re
balancing those two issues in a way that we actually are going to achieve … all
the goals that we want.
“We have to make sure
that we’re on renewables, and at the same time protecting our environment.”
Kalus said she does
not support “cutting down open land for additional solar farms” and wants to
utilize brownfields and roofs for solar arrays. She suggested using tax breaks
rather than negative reinforcement to incentivize those locations for solar
development rather than forest or other open space.
Both also agreed that
efforts to advance toxic plastic-burning legislation undermine efforts to
protect environmental justice communities.
Election day is Nov.
8.
Colleen Cronin is a
Report for America corps member who writes about environmental issues in rural
Rhode Island for ecoRI News.