Environmental advocates gathered on the State House steps on Thursday in support of bills aimed at reducing plastics pollution and addressing climate change.
“We’re here today to act on climate,” said Amy Moses, director of the Conservation Law Foundation Rhode Island. “We need our state to take comprehensive action and reduce carbon emissions. When it comes to the environment, the federal government is doing more harm than good. That leaves it to the states to step it up.”
The more far-reaching of the two pieces of legislation that were the subject of the rally organized by the Environment Council of Rhode Island is the Global Warming Solutions Act, which would make existing greenhouse-gas reduction goals for the state mandatory.
The goals, which ultimately aim to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050, were approved by the General Assembly with the passage of the Resilient Rhode Island Act in 2014, but environmental groups say the law lacks teeth.
Previous versions of a bill with enforcement powers have been proposed but have never progressed. Meanwhile, Massachusetts passed a binding law in 2008 and Connecticut followed suit in 2017.
“We have set our carbon-reduction goals in Rhode Island, and it’s time to make them mandatory, and it’s time to make them enforceable,” said Sen. Dawn Euer, the Newport Democrat who introduced the bill in the Senate.
The House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources was set to hold a hearing after the rally on the act, as well as what’s known as the “Ask First” Straw bill, first introduced by Senate Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey, which would prohibit restaurants from providing plastic straws unless customers specifically request them.
The straw bill attempts to reduce pollution, but it would also address climate change because plastics production is an energy-intensive industry that relies on petrochemicals, said John Berard, Rhode Island director of Clean Water Action.
“As we turn toward renewable energy, electric vehicles and other measures to reduce our carbon emissions, the fossil fuel and chemical industries will seek new ways to keep their profit margins high,” he said. “They need a product for all of the raw materials they want to continue to produce and they have set their sights on plastics.”
The event also celebrated the state Department of Transportation’s recent decision to restore $27 million in funding for bike and pedestrian projects.
“While we all applaud this decision, we implore the state to not only keep our bike/ped projects funded but to also invest in and integrate bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure into every bridge and road project,” said Sarah Mitchell, chair of the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition.