Environment Council of Rhode Island

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When Governor Carcieri took office in January of 2003, global warming was walking up the front steps to knock on the door. More than seven years later, climate change is firmly ensconced in the living room, and it's not leaving anytime soon.

Rhode Island, and indeed the world, is in the midst of the hottest year ever recorded. Crops are weeks ahead of schedule while at the same time last year, they had been destroyed by unusually wet summer weather followed by drought. In Narragansett Bay, ocean life important to the ecosystem and the economy is disappearing due to warmer temperatures. Meanwhile, the loss of Rhode Island shoreline to rising sea levels is accelerating, and this spring the state suffered through record-breaking floods. The volatile destructive weather and increased temperatures that had been merely the forecasts of scientists are now the reality.

It is against this sobering backdrop of climate change and the related issue of the world's dwindling natural and energy resources that Governor Carcieri's environmental record must be judged. Strong action beginning in 2003, establishing the full range of projects necessary to reduce Rhode Island’s greenhouse gas emissions and improve community resilience, would have positioned the state economy well for the post-carbon age that awaits, while providing resources and jobs for Rhode Island communities today. Carcieri never took such action. This Green Report Card describes how the Governor fell short, as well as what the incoming administration must now do to set Rhode Island on the right path.

Gov. Carcieri's staff was unresponsive to the environmental community, the concerns it raised, and solutions it offered about growing problems such as carbon pollution, water scarcity, over development, waste management, diesel pollution, and the deteriorating transit and transportation systems.

In truth, Rhode Island has made progress in addressing many environmental issues over the past eight years, but this progress has come through the General Assembly's leadership in spite of the Governor's office’s inaction and frequent opposition. The result has often been that good policy was slow to develop and in the worst case, forgotten like transportation reform. The Governor convened Blue Ribbon Panel of experts on sustainable transportation, but then did nothing to implement the panel's recommendations adopted in 2008.

The Governor's efforts in relation to global warming are a case in point. He delayed participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and earlier this year he signed onto a letter supporting U.S. Senator Murkowski's attempt to revoke the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate carbon emissions. The Governor also failed to actively support open space bond referenda after 2004. Fortunately, the General Assembly and the Attorney General's office stepped into leadership roles and fought through the administration's obstruction to make progress possible.

Unfortunately, Governor Carcieri's legacy of inaction and obstruction has left Rhode Island in a precarious situation. At a time when the resiliency of the environment will be seriously and continuously challenged by climate change, the environmental agencies that are tasked with meeting those challenges have been left woefully understaffed by the Governor's budget cuts.

The transportation system needs $3 billion worth of repairs and maintenance over the next decade just to be safe and passable. That investment will be in addition to making the improvements necessary to give Rhode Island the 21st century transportation system it needs to be environmentally sensitive and economically competitive.

Even in the field of clean energy where the Governor set important and ambitious goals, his staff would not collaborate with the nascent renewable energy industry or advocates. Instead, his legacy is an expensive deal constructed around a single preferred developer, Deepwater Wind, which threatens to turn the public away from support of renewable energy and continues to drive away competitive renewable energy development from the state.

Recommendations for the Incoming Administration

This incoming administration will be charged with the task of addressing these critical issues. In order to succeed, the next Governor must:

• Recognize the unprecedented challenges presented by climate change and resource depletion. Rhode Island, in concert with the rest of the world, must make every possible effort to reduce its carbon footprint and become energy independent, and the Governor should be the leader of that effort in the State. The newly created Rhode Island Commission on Climate Change can play an essential role in identifying next steps.

• Communicate and work with the scientific and environmental community. The next Governor needs to engage a broad cross section of Rhode Island residents in addressing environmental challenges.

• Tackle transportation. Transportation is a keystone issue that affects environmental issues from air quality and carbon pollution, to conservation and wetlands protection. The new Governor, in tandem with the General Assembly, needs to find a way to sustainably fund a transportation system that will allow Rhode Island to preserve its natural resources and reduce pollution. Looking to Gov. Carcieri's Blue Ribbon Panel recommendations will be the first step.

• Put renewable energy back on the right foot. There is a great future for clean energy production in Rhode Island, but in order for renewable energy companies to be confident in bringing business to the state, it must be clear that there is a level playing field.

• Support the EPA's right to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. It is critical that the Environmental Protection Agency maintain its right to regulate carbon emissions.

• Conserve vulnerable open space. Rhode Island has lost more than 80% of its farmland since the 1940s. Of the 67,000 acres left, only one fourth is protected. Saving this land is important for sustaining local food production, one of the few bright spots in the economy, and for preserving the other environmental qualities that farmland provides.