Environment
Environmental issues and climate change
Civic Alliance for a Cooler Rhode Island to present symposium on Biden executive orders
“Our goal is to jump start this conversation. We should not underestimate how transformational Climate Federalism will look in 10 years. It’s taken nearly seven years of hard work in moving the Rhode Island legislature to enact the Act on Climate legislation. Biden’s executive orders gives us a small window of opportunity. Waiting or doing nothing is no longer a viable option.”
ECRI urges Governor McKee to sign 2021 Act on Climate bill into law - as is
ECRI is calling on Governor McKee to commit to signing the 2021 Act On Climate into law by Earth Day, April 22nd, as written and passed by both the House and Senate. ECRI looks forward to working alongside Governor McKee and his administration to implementing the Act On Climate and delivering a cleaner, healthier future for all Rhode Islanders.
DARE holds State House rally in support of the THRIVE Agenda
"A year ago grassroots organizations from around New England got together [because] we're sick of play Whack-a-Mole, we're sick of having people in silos here and there having the same kind of issues and also we're sick of working on the environment and not seeing the intersection of housing and jobs," said Monica Huertas, an environmental activist who leads the People's Port Authority in Providence. The point of the Renew New England Coalition is to develop regional power to forward the objectives of the THRIVE Agenda, said Huertas.
Renew New England Alliance presents detailed, community-driven green infrastructure plans
“Our communities know what they need to recover and to ensure that people won’t be so vulnerable to future crises,” said RI State Representative Brianna Henries. "This is the time to listen to them, trust them, and invest in them. Communities have put in the work to develop these detailed plans, and it’s time we put federal funding towards enacting them by passing the THRIVE Act."
People's Port Authority rallies to shut down scrap metal yard and all toxic industries in the Port
"There's no good revenue here," said Huertas. "This is bottom of the barrel shit." The Port of providence, said Huertas, is where the stuff that "no one else wants in their community" goes. "So they throw in here with all the Black and brown folk and nobody cares about it."
It took four hours, but Act on Climate RI passed the RI House
The bill passed the House on a slight bipartisan 53-22 vote, as Republicans floated amendment after amendment that were all either voted down or ruled not germane. Republican arguments that the bill would lead to absurdities such as homeowners forced to make unaffordable modifications to their heating systems or Rhode Islanders being forced o become vegans were dismissed by the majority of Representatives.
Carbon reduction bill Act on Climate passes RI Senate, poised to pass House
The bill is a long overdue update to the 2014 Resilient Rhode Island Act to address climate-warming carbon emissions. It revises emission-reduction targets according to the latest science, improves transparency, and adds accountability to ensure that state climate goals are met over the next thirty years. And for the first time, the bill centers equity and justice in the state’s plans for reducing emissions and building climate resilience.
Senate hears two of three proposed Green New Deal bills
Here's the video of the testimony and the reactions of Senators.
All the video from the DEM hearing on proposed pyrolysis medical waste to energy facility
All the testimony from the RI Department of Environmental Management's hearing on the proposed pyrolysis medical waste to energy facility.
Protesters target TD Bank in Providence for continued oil pipeline investment
"Enbridge also has an impact here in Rhode Island. In 2016 Enbridge bought out Spectra Energy, which operates a massive fracked-gas pipeline that cuts across the Northeast. The pipeline has a compressor station in Burrillville which spews toxins onto that community."