• Rhode Island lawmakers are expected to reintroduce the Building Decarbonization Act to reduce emissions from heating and cooling.
• Environmental advocates are concerned about a lack of legislative action needed to meet the state’s 2030 climate goals.
• Other potential environmental legislation includes bills to increase public transit funding and improve recycling through a bottle bill.

Two years ago, the state Senate approved legislation that aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heating and cooling buildings in Rhode Island, but the measure was held up in the House.

Last year, roles were reversed, and with the Senate demurring, it was the House’s turn to pass a version of the bill that advocates say is necessary to meet the net-zero by 2050 mandate of the Act on Climate.

The Building Decarbonization Act is set to be reintroduced again this year in the General Assembly and once again, it will most likely be on the list of legislative priorities for the coalition that represents leading environmental groups across the state.

“I could see that getting a lot of support,” said James Crowley, president of the Environment Council of Rhode Island. “We haven’t taken much action yet on the heating sector despite it accounting for a third of emissions.”

As the new legislative session kicked off last week, Crowley and other advocates have measured hopes for environmental action in the General Assembly. Many believe this is a pivotal time for Rhode Island, just four years out from the Act on Climate’s next interim target, a 45% reduction of planet-warming emissions from 1990 levels by 2030.

But they also know that the lack of support for anything climate-related from the Trump administration will complicate state efforts. And with a gubernatorial race on the cards, state leaders will be wary of doing anything that potentially raises costs for Rhode Islanders, especially as they look for ways to fill gaps in federal funding for things like health care and education.

“We have to be mindful of the moment that we’re operating in,” said Jed Thorp, director of advocacy for Save The Bay. “That will make it relatively hard for environmental issues to break through.”

Session follows approval of new state climate action plan

After years of inaction on environmental priorities, the General Assembly appeared to turn a corner in 2021 with the passage of the Act on Climate, a law that underpins all policymaking in the state around transitioning away from fossil fuels. It was followed a year later with a commitment to offset all electric usage in the state with wind, solar and other renewable sources by 2033.

But there’s been little movement since then in the legislature to address emissions from buildings, transportation and other sectors of the Rhode Island economy, leading to questions about the state’s commitment to its climate goals.

At a meeting last month of the state Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council, Emily Koo, Rhode Island director of the Acadia Center, a clean energy advocacy group, spoke of a “vacuum of climate leadership” across state government.

Meg Kerr, vice chair of the climate council’s advisory board, urged greater urgency.

“We really need a whole-of-government approach and a whole-of-economy approach to achieve the Act on Climate,” she said. “We need state leadership and state vision.”

They spoke at a Dec. 18 meeting of the council, which is made up of agency directors and staff and directs the state government’s climate policy. Its members were meeting to approve a strategy that had been in the works for more than a year and is supposed to lay out the ways the state could meet the Act on Climate’s goals.

But some critics said the plan fell short of expectations, with too much focus on the federal government’s hostility to climate policy. Bill Ibelle, a member of Climate Action Rhode Island, described the tone of the report as “defeatist.”

While the report assumed big upticks in the adoption of heat pumps and electric cars and projected the state would reach the 2030 target, it didn’t lay out a plan to get to later goals, he and others complained.

“It’s really important that these are things that we should push hard on,” Ibelle said. “What I’d like to see this group do is do more then mention them, but endorse them.”

In a statement, Terry Gray, director of the state Department of Environmental Management and chair of the climate council, said that state agencies are “fully committed to action” and that they are already implementing parts of the strategy while also looking at alternatives in the absence of federal backing.

“Recent federal rollbacks of clean-energy initiatives, disruptions to offshore wind, and the loss of critical federal funding have significantly altered the policy and financing landscape that many states, including Rhode Island, have relied on,” he said. “As those impacts continue to unfold, states must reassess how best to advance their climate goals under these new conditions.” 

Measures to reduce reliance on fossil fuels are expected

Amid the uncertainty, Sen. Meghan Kallman said she believes the General Assembly needs to do more on climate issues.

The Pawtucket Democrat was the lead sponsor in the Senate of the Building Decarbonization Act in 2024 and 2025 and plans to introduce it again this year. Last year’s version required that new buildings be constructed so that they’re able to switch from heating systems that burn fossil fuels to electric heat pumps. (The House version that won passage, introduced by Rep. Rebecca Kislak, was amended so that it required only that large buildings track and report their energy usage.)

Kallman said she’s also working on a separate bill focused on new hospital construction and electrification, as well as other measures.

“My expectation is that the Senate will continue to lead on these issues,” Kallman said. “The federal landscape is challenging, but that’s a reason why the state needs to take leadership.”

While Crowley, a staff attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, said that the Environment Council won’t vote on its priorities for several more weeks, he thinks Kallman’s bill would almost certainly be on the list again. So, too, would a move to reduce reliance on cars by finding more funds for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. A bottle bill aimed at improving recycling would also be a priority if it’s proposed again.

On the latter, the legislature voted last year to study the costs of implementing the redemption system for used bottles and cans that the bill calls for. The report is due by the end of the year, so Thorp doesn’t expect approval of the new recycling program in the meantime but he expects a bill to be filed to keep discussions going.

Koo said she’s hoping for more attention in the General Assembly on reducing the state’s reliance on natural gas. She mentioned a proposal to limit new spending on the gas delivery system. She also said that reduced electric rates for heat pump users and variable rates that could make it cheaper to charge electric cars would also help.

Crowley said there’s hope that with a new Congress after the mid-term elections and a new president in three years, the political landscape could change once again.

“Even in this difficult climate we can still do the work,” he said.