Energy and the Environment

Rhode Island needs to join the growing number of states that are creating Climate Superfunds, modeled on the success of the toxic waste superfund program, to require fossil fuel companies to pay into a state fund that will cover the cost of implementing climate resiliency and mitigation initiatives. Big Oil is directly responsible for increases in extreme weather and sea level rise, and it should be responsible for funding the cleanup of the problems it’s exacerbated.

Clean energy is more cost-effective and sustainable than fossil fuels, and we need to continue our investment in transitioning to it, including compensating for Donald Trump’s elimination of the federal tax credits for residential solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs) by adding comparable incentives to the state tax code.

We are not currently on track to meet the Act on Climate’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Correcting course will require us to accelerate our shift to clean energy solutions such as solar, offshore wind, EVs, and electric heat pumps — and that acceleration will only happen if we invest in making those solutions affordable and publicizing state supports for them widely to make all Rhode Islanders aware that they are accessible. In this year’s legislative session, Rep. Ajello voted to weaken our energy targets by allowing non-renewable forms of energy to be considered “clean” and to reduce net-metering incentives for solar energy use. These policy changes will be major steps back, undermining our position as an environmental leader and imperiling our future. I will fight to repeal these reversals and expand access to clean energy through creative solutions such as “balcony solar,” which is accessible to renters and condo owners, not just homeowners.

We can and must transition to a clean energy future without exacerbating ratepayer burdens.

In 2007, Rep. Ajello introduced a bill that would have guaranteed the Providence Water Supply Board at least an 8% profit and could have raised some water bills by as much as 16.3%. In 2012, she voted for a bill that would have allowed utility companies to pass off the costs of unpaid bills to other ratepayers. (In an extremely rare occurrence, it failed on the House floor.) I will oppose any legislation that prioritizes utilities’ bottom lines over ratepayers’ wallets.

As the use of generative AI rapidly expands, so does the demand for data centers to power it. Everything on the internet needs a data center, but it takes far more space and power to support AI than it does conventional internet activity. New research from Cornell warns that, if allowed to expand without environmental safeguards, data centers will emit as much carbon dioxide as 5 to 10 million cars and use as much water as 6 to 10 million Americans every single year.

I will work to limit the impact of data centers by pushing to require them to be powered by renewable energy and adhere to strict circular water management standards to limit their water intake.

• The expansion of data centers has also raised environmental justice concerns, as new centers are disproportionately concentrated in low-income communities of color and exacerbate problems related to air quality and water shortages in those areas. We must include robust siting protections in the framework regulating data centers to ensure that the environmental damage they cause does not unduly harm our most vulnerable neighbors.