This afternoon, Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri '65 will deliver the opening speech at a conference on clean and sustainable energy hosted by the Brown Forum for Enterprise.
His participation follows the announcement in his fifth annual State of the State Address that Rhode Island would join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, making Rhode Island the last New England state to do so.
In his Jan. 30 address, Carcieri announced a number of environmental and energy initiatives, including $85 million in the 2008 budget to clean up the Narragansett Bay, the creation of a state agency to manage and sell renewable energy and a goal to meet 20 percent of Rhode Island's electricity needs with renewable energy by 2011.
But the RGGI announcement received the most applause among his energy initiatives. Rhode Island participated in drafting of the initiative until 2005, when Carcieri backed out of the bill, citing cost concerns.
The initiative asks states to create cap-and-trade and offset programs to reduce and counter carbon dioxide emissions. Cap-and-trade programs allow companies that cannot avoid producing high levels of emissions to buy the right to continue producing at those levels from companies that can lower their emissions. Offset programs allow companies to balance the negative effects of their energy consumption by funding renewable energy initiatives.
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Steven Hamburg, who spoke with Carcieri a few days after his State of the State address, said he wasn't surprised by the governor's announcement that Rhode Island would join the RGGI.
Since Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed the agreement on Jan. 18, "Rhode Island was in a position where (not signing the agreement) would serve no purpose unless (Carcieri) was trying to make a statement," Hamburg said. Since Rhode Island residents consume energy produced in Massachusetts' coal-burning plants, the costs of Massachusetts complying with RGGI would transfer to Rhode Island consumers anyway, Hamburg said.
The only electric plant in the state is already efficient in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, Hamburg said. Still, Carcieri's decision establishes precedent for other states to join similar agreements.
Visiting Lecturer in Environmental Studies Donald Pryor said Carcieri's decision only "somewhat" surprised him because he knew of pressure from Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts '78, Attorney General Patrick Lynch '87 and several environmental groups to sign the agreement.
"When Massachusetts joined, I think the pressure increased," Pryor said. Pryor serves on a science advisory committee to the Rhode Island Bays, Rivers and Watersheds Coordination Team, created by the governor in 2003 to address environmental problems in the Narragansett Bay.
"Within the governor's office, there was a realization that they had leverage (in the Northeast) only if Massachusetts didn't sign the pact," he said.
Pryor said he didn't know whether Rhode Islanders would have to shoulder the financial burden created by Massachusetts signing the agreement. "The truth is all of that still is in flux," he said. "There are a host of issues about the economics that are still not clear."
"It's great that after refusing to take part in the RGGI, Governor Carcieri has changed his position, and Rhode Island won't fall behind other states in clean energy and climate action," wrote Nathan Wyeth '08, a member of student environmental group emPOWER, in an e-mail to The Herald. "I hope Brown won't be far behind," he added.
Aden Van Noppen '09, another emPOWER member, said she was "pleasantly surprised" by Carcieri's announcement. But she said, "it's up to students to push Brown."
"We need to do at least as much as Rhode Island but probably more because we're one of the richest institutions in the state and one of the largest emitters of carbon," she said.
"Both Rhode Island and the University can show the rest of the country how important offsets can be when done correctly," said Jon Magaziner '07, another member of emPOWER. "EmPOWER is asking the administration to do the same thing," he said, though he added that the group has always wanted the University to reduce total emissions before resorting to offsets.
