Clean Energy Program News

Advocates Call for Action On Global Warming and Clean Energy Bills At Assembly

Read the report. 

Providence- In the waning hours of the legislative session environmental advocates, lawmakers, Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts and the Office of Attorney General Patrick Lynch joined together to release a new report on the potential to save energy in New England and to call for action on global warming and clean energy legislation at the General Assembly.

According to Tomorrow’s Energy Today, a report released today by the Environment Rhode Island Research & Policy Center and Clean Water Action, Rhode Island and New England could take advantage of technologies that are feasible today to reduce energy consumption by at least 18 percent, thus reducing the region’s emissions of carbon dioxide by at least 20 percent.

“Changing the way that we both produce and consume energy here in Rhode Island is something to which I am wholly committed," said Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts. "It is my hope that this report will invigorate lawmakers and everyday Rhode Islanders to do their part to make these changes a reality. The time is now to take action on climate change and I commend Environment Rhode Island and Clean Water Action for their work on putting this report together."

The environmental advocates highlighted five pieces of legislation that are still in play in the final days of the General Assembly session that would help Rhode Island transition to a cleaner energy future. The bills include:

H-5577 (Handy) – A bill to implement a regional program to cap and reduce global warming pollution from power plants also known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

S-44 (Bates)– A bill to increase tax credit incentives for Residential Renewable Energy Systems (hearing today in House Finance).

S-231 (Miller) and H-5579 (Segal)- A bill to require more transparency and planning for ratepayer’s renewable energy investments. (Hearing at the rise in Senate Corporations on H-5579).

S-943 (Algiere) – A bill to create a new Rhode Island Power Authority to that may be amended to include implementation of a regional plan to cap and reduce global warming pollution from power plants (hearing today in Senate Corporations at the Rise).

H-5566 (Segal) - A bill to remove financial barriers to municipal wind and other small-scale renewable energy projects by removing barriers to “net metering”.

“Rhode Island can slash its demand for energy, cut global warming pollution and save consumers money over the next several years, and this new report provides the roadmap for how to do it,” said Matt Auten, Advocate for Environment Rhode Island. “However, we need action from the General Assembly and Gov. Carcieri to get tough on global warming, continue investing in programs to save energy and remove barriers to clean energy solutions like renewable power.”

“When it comes to energy policy, we’ve been on auto-pilot for too long,” said Denise Parrillo, of Clean Water Action.  “We need to turn the wheel harder to steer our state to a new energy future.”

According to “Tomorrow’s Energy Today,” a scenario that takes advantage of the region’s full near-term energy efficiency and renewable energy potential could:

• Cut gasoline consumption by 21 percent;

• Cut diesel fuel consumption by 13 percent;

• Cut natural gas consumption by 22 percent;

• Cut nuclear power production by 26 per­cent;

• Cut coal consumption by 28 percent; and

• Reduce the region’s emissions of carbon dioxide by nearly 20 percent.

These global warming reductions would exceed the near-term goals for emission reduc­tions of 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 set out in the New England Governors/East­ern Canadian Premiers’ 2001 Climate Change Action Plan.

The report uses recent US Department of Energy data to look at fuel use and sector for each state in New England. For each of the largest end uses of that energy, the analysis probed the best existing technology to reduce energy usage and replace dirty energy use with clean sources.

By implementing technologies available today, New England can significantly reduce energy use and global warming emissions, including:

• Technological improvements to cars and light trucks that would enable vehicles to achieve average fuel economy of at least 33 miles-per-gal­lon over the next decade, and much better fuel economy in the years to come;

• Improvements to heavy-duty trucks that can reduce their fuel consumption per mile by 29 percent;

• Weatherizing homes in New England to reduce their use of fuel for space heating during the cold winter months and reduce air conditioning demand in the summer;

• Improved water heaters and other major appli­ances for homeowners that achieve significant reductions in energy consumption;

• More energy-efficient space heating, cooling and lighting equipment in commercial buildings;

• More efficient motors in industrial facilities, along with smarter integration of motors into industrial processes; and

• Combined heat-and-power technology that allows business and industry to create heat and electricity at the same time – resulting in a large improve­ment in overall energy efficiency.

In addition, Tomorrow’s Energy Today reviewed New England’s solar and wind energy resources, which are suf­ficient to power the entire region several times over. Currently, very little of New England’s energy comes from within the region – only enough to power our homes, vehicles and businesses for 2 hours and 15 minutes of every day. Taking advantage of only a small share of our renew­able resources could enable us to replace 10 percent of the region’s electricity generation with new renewable energy in the near future.