RI Senate Oks Bill Outlining, Enforcing Climate Reduction Goals

PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island is one step closer to taking bold action to reduce carbon emissions. On Tuesday, the Senate approved a bill that would update the state's climate-emission reduction goals, as well as make them enforceable.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Sawn Euer, who chairs the Senate's Environment and Agriculture committee. It builds upon the current climate goals outlined in the Resilient Rhode Island Act of 2014, making them more ambitious to align with current scientific evidence. Euer's bill calls for a plan to reduce all climate emissions from transportation, heating, electricty and buildings across the state's economy to the following benchmarks:

• 10 percent below 1990 levels this year
• 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2030
• 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2040
• Net-zero by 2050

Euer, who represents Newport and Jamestown, said that climate emissions are a major threat to Rhode Island, in particular.

"Communities like mine in Newport are already inundated more regularly and severely by storm surges, and face loss of public and private property, historic sites and businesses," Euer said. "Climate change isn’t something that will happen at some nebulous future time – it is wreaking havoc on our communities right now."

The bill also requires that the state's Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council update its plan for carbon reduction every five years, taking into effect how to enact these changes equitably. It also calls for the creation of an online transparency dashboard to track annual emissions reductions and sources of energy. If the state is not meeting benchmarks by 2025, Rhode Island residents would have the right to take legal action through Providence Superior Court.

"As a state with so much to lose, we cannot afford and have no excuse to be anything but totally committed to negating our carbon emissions," Euer said. "This is, without question, our battle and our responsibility."

Climate Jobs Rhode Island, a newly formed coalition of labor and environmental organizations aimed at helping the state transition to a green economy, praised the bill's passage in the Senate.

"This bill is a critical step forward for Rhode Island,"said Patrick Crowley, the co-chair of the organizations and a leader of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO union. "Our state can lead the way for the rest of the country towards establishing a just transition to a net-zero emission economy centered on racial and social justice and the voices of the people who are most affected by pollution—frontline workers and frontline communities."

The bill is now headed to the House of Representatives, where the Environment and Natural Resources committee is scheduled to vote on a companion bill Thursday.