Rhode Island

Rhode Island is a unique opportunity for clean energy action. With its small geographic size, dense population, and a single utility serving nearly all of the state’s energy customers, Rhode Island could represent the model for the equitable, clean energy vision central to Acadia Center’s work. Known in history as the birthplace of the American industrial revolution, Rhode Island is poised, once again, to become a center for innovation and the birthplace of a clean energy revolution.

Energy Efficiency

Rhode Island is already a national leader in energy efficiency, thanks in large part to the Energy Efficiency Resources Management Council (EERMC) established through legislation designed and advanced by Acadia Center. Strong energy efficiency policies have already delivered billions of dollars of economic benefits at a fraction of the investment costs. Acadia Center serves on the Energy Efficiency Technical Working Group and is at the center of the efforts to achieve the recently studied maximum potential energy savings and defend against shortsighted efforts to terminate the state’s energy efficiency programs.

Clean Electricity

Acadia Center also plays a leading role in Rhode Island’s efforts to increase the use of local renewable energy resources, like rooftop and large-scale solar, onshore and offshore wind, hydropower, and energy storage. Rhode Island, already home to the nation’s first offshore wind facility, is on track to become the first state to procure all electricity from clean, renewable sources. As a member of the 18-month long Solar Siting Stakeholder Process, Acadia Center has been a leader in advocating for responsible energy siting policies. As state agencies develop energy policies to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2030, Acadia Center will continue to provide cutting-edge data and policy analysis and thought leadership.
Beyond advocacy for expanded clean energy resources, Acadia Center also works through several stakeholder and several utility working groups to optimize current and future grid performance, advance non-wires and non-pipeline alternative investment solutions, integrate technologies that enable a customer-centric utility model, and lower the cost of energy for all consumers.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector alone will be insufficient to achieve climate goals to avoid the worst outcomes of the climate crisis. Acadia Center’s work also envisions greater electrification of transportation and building heating—historically dominated by fossil fuel combustion. According to the latest data available, transportation and building heating are the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Rhode Island.

Transportation

As a member of the state’s Mobility Innovation Working Group, Acadia Center is leading the charge for the Rhode Island to adopt clean transportation policies including the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), a cap-and-invest program that would apply a nominal carbon price on transportation fuels and reinvest proceeds into clean transportation and mobility strategies like vehicle electrification, transit improvements, and bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure. In addition to reducing carbon emissions and combating climate change, the TCI policy would reduce local air pollution, deliver enormous health and safety benefits, create jobs, and stimulate a modern local economy.

Buildings

Acadia Center also advocates for Rhode Island to transition away from fossil fuel use in the buildings sector. Technological advances in heat pumps, water heaters, and induction cooking appliances have made fossil fuel combustion obsolete in buildings. Acadia Center works at the intersection of state legislative and regulatory processes to advance incentives and programs that help Rhode Islanders make the switch to clean, safe, all-electric homes.

Natural Gas

At the intersection of building heat and power generation, Acadia Center works to transition Rhode Island away from natural gas (also known as fossil gas, or methane). Rhode Island currently gets a large amount of its electricity and building heating from the combustion of methane imported from outside our region. Methane is also an incredibly potent greenhouse gas that leaks into the atmosphere along its entire journey into and throughout Rhode Island. The region’s gas transmission and distribution system represent a public safety, health, and climate danger and leaves Rhode Islanders vulnerable to supply disruptions, price shocks, and heating outages—something Aquidneck Island residents experienced firsthand during the low-pressure emergency in January 2019. While fixing the most dangerous gas leaks should be an important state priority, repairs to the entirety of the gas system and a transition to lower carbon gas fuels will add enormous costs to ratepayers. Those investments should instead prioritize a transition away from gas and towards electrification that will make our communities safer, healthier, and more energy independent.

Partnerships

In Rhode Island, Acadia Center is currently an organizer, member, partner or supporter of the following groups or coalitions (as well as many other ad hoc collaborative efforts):

• Environment Council of Rhode Island
• Energize RI!
• Act on Climate 2020 Campaign
• Mobility Innovation Working Group
• RI Clean Transportation and TCI Advocates
• Energy Efficiency Technical Working Group
• System Reliability Procurement Technical Working Group
• Power Sector Transformation Advisory Group, including the Grid Modernization/Advanced Metering Subcommittee and the Electric Transportation/Energy Storage Subcommittee
• Rhode Island Offshore Wind Power
• Northeast Smart Heat Collaborative
• Racial and Environmental Justice Committee of Providence