Environment

Senate passes on confirming Raimondo reappointments to Coastal Resources management Council

“Now that five positions on the CRMC are open, the People’s Port Authority still demands, as we have over the last three years, that a minimum of four of the vacancies be filled by BIPOC residing in Coastal Environmental Justice Communities with at least one residing in the South Side of Providence and one residing in Washington Park.”

Rhode Island News: Senate passes on confirming Raimondo reappointments to Coastal Resources management Council

February 10, 2021, 4:41 pm

By Uprise RI Staff

The People’s Port Authority is celebrating the decision by thhe Rhode Island Senate to removed from consideration three of Governor Gina Raimondo‘s reappointments to the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) on Wednesday in response to reports that the office of Attorney General Peter Neronha is investigating the Council’s actions surrounding Block Island’s Champlin Marina.

The People’s Port Authority is pushing to have four of the five vacancies on the CRMC will be filled by “BIPOC residing in Coastal Environmental Justice Communities with at least one residing in the South Side of Providence and one residing in Washington Park.

Monica Huertas, executive director of the People’s Port Authority, an environmental justice group, writes that her group is “thrilled to find out that Attorney General Neronha is intervening in a Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) case, the Champlain Marina Expansion, therefore causing the RI Senate to not move forward with voting on Governor Raimondo’s three reappointments to the CRMC.

Huertas continues:

We hope that this is the first step of many needed to ensure that all people in Rhode Island are treated equally, that this will be a step towards all people in Rhode Island, especially the most impacted and marginalized community of Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), to have their voices are heard. Representation is needed and wanted at every level of state and local government including committees and boards in Rhode Island.

Today is a good day to further all grassroots campaigns and policies that will help us all fight Environmental Injustice. When we fight we win!

Now that five positions on the CRMC are open, the People’s Port Authority still demands, as we have over the last three years, that a minimum of four of the vacancies be filled by BIPOC residing in Coastal Environmental Justice Communities with at least one residing in the South Side of Providence and one residing in Washington Park.

The People’s Port Authority will be putting forward candidates to fill these vacancies soon. If you are interested in being on the CRMC please contact us. Other Coastal Environmental Justice Communities include Members of the Narragansett Tribe, Central Falls, the majority of Providence and Pawtucket, Riverside in East Providence, Oakland Beach in Warwick, Quonset in North Kingston, and the North End of Newport.

Additionally we want to see changes in the statue governing the CRMC to require representation of our BIPOC and Coastal Environmental Justice Communities made permanent.

For more on the CRMC see this Twitter thread and included links: