Rhode Island
Critics sound off on proposed winter utility rate hikes at PUC hearing • Rhode Island Current
The prospect of winter utility rate hikes drew sharp criticism Monday night from residents, activists, and elected officials, who blasted Rhode Island Energy for its proposed gas and electric rates during a public hearing.
The nearly-two-hour-long hearing held at the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission’s Warwick offices comes less than a month before the commission’s scheduled vote on winter electric rates, which take effect Oct. 1, along with annual natural gas rates, which take effect Nov. 1.
Rhode Island Energy, the primary supplier of electricity and natural gas for residents and businesses, has proposed higher rates for both electricity and gas supply compared with current, summer prices, as is typical during colder months.
If approved, the average residential customer would see their monthly electric bill increase 23.4%, or $32.16, starting Oct. 1. The average residential gas bill would increase $41.72 per year.
Business and industrial customers would also see their bills rise, with the increase dependent upon usage.
The proposed electric rates are slightly less than last winter, while rising natural gas supply costs will be slightly offset by a monthly bill credit due to accounting errors in the previous year, according to filings with state regulators.
But critics remain unconvinced by the argument that market demand and availability — not company profits — are driving the increases, despite state regulations that prevent the private utility provider from profiting off the power it buys from third-party suppliers.
“Not only is it cruel, it just doesn’t make sense that people are putting profit over people’s lives,” Lee Wilder said during the hearing. “Rhode Island already has the second highest electricity rates in the country. What are we going for, first?”
Wilder was among the dozen community activists who donned T-shirts signifying their participation in local community organizing efforts through the George Wiley Center and the Rhode Island Poor People’s Campaign. Both groups have pushed for a state policy change known as the Percentage Income Payment Plan, which would create a discount plan in which low-income ratepayers – earning less than 150% of federal poverty guidelines – pay 3% to 6% of their income on gas and electricity. The proposal, modeled after similar policies in more than a dozen states, is a perennial fixture at the Rhode Island State House but has failed to gain traction in either chamber despite support from a handful of lawmakers, including Providence Democratic Rep. David Morales.
“In the grand scheme of affordability and cost of living, this is pushing people into utility debt, this is pushing people into losing service, and worst of all, this is pushing people into housing instability and eventually becoming homeless,” Morales said Monday.
Rhode Island already has the second highest electricity rates in the country. What are we going for, first?
– Lee Wilder, community activist
Heartbreaking stories about rising rents, medical costs and child care featured prominently in testimony Monday.
Pawtucket resident Ubaldo Quintero said he already had his utilities shut off, after losing his job during the pandemic. Quintero’s wife has disabilities and requires electricity as part of her care.
“I don’t want to have to choose between eating and paying for services,” Quintero said, speaking through an interpreter.
College student Daisy Paz also lamented the obstacles to her education if she can’t afford to keep paying for electricity.
“I want to continue my studies, but I don’t have the money to pay for rate increases,” Paz said.
At the same time as the review of proposed rate hikes, state regulators are considering changes to the way rates are calculated including a model in which monthly costs fluctuate rather than stay flat for a six-month period.
Nicholas Vaz, special assistant attorney general to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, in an Aug. 23 memo to state regulators, stressed the need to consider state decarbonization mandates under the Act on Climate Law if rate design and calculations are changed. Vaz also acknowledged the impact of proposed winter rate hikes on residents.
“As noted above, the LRS rates being considered in this docket are the result of pass-through supply costs, and the Company is not permitted to profit on supply,” Vaz wrote. “Still, this is of no comfort to Rhode Islanders who face increased bills each month during the winter period, just as they have in years past.”
The proposed electric rate hikes also do not account for refunds from a $25 million overcollection in 2023. Details of how the refund will be distributed are still being finalized.
State regulators will review and approve proposed winter electric and gas rates at a later meeting which has not been scheduled as of Tuesday.
Customers in seven municipalities — Barrington, Central Falls, Narragansett, Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, and South Kingstown — can opt out of the Rhode Island Energy electric prices and participate instead in a community aggregation plan that leverages bulk buying power to secure lower-priced electricity for its residents.
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The Rhode Island Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 8, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from June 8 drawing
03-24-34-43-49, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 3
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Numbers numbers from June 8 drawing
Midday: 5-1-4-9
Evening: 6-0-8-6
Check Numbers payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Wild Money numbers from June 8 drawing
02-04-17-22-32, Extra: 16
Check Wild Money payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from June 8 drawing
20-25-40-50-55, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes less than $600 can be claimed at any Rhode Island Lottery Retailer. Prizes of $600 and above must be claimed at Lottery Headquarters, 1425 Pontiac Ave., Cranston, Rhode Island 02920.
- Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot winners can decide on cash or annuity payment within 60 days after becoming entitled to the prize. The annuitized prize shall be paid in 30 graduated annual installments.
- Winners of the Millionaire for Life top prize of $1,000,000 a year for life and second prize of $100,000 a year for life can decide to collect the prize for a minimum of 20 years or take a lump sum cash payment.
When are the Rhode Island Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 10:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 10:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Midday): 1:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Evening): 7:29 p.m. ET daily.
- Wild Money: 7:29 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Rhode Island editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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With time running out and no action scheduled yet, advocates are escalating their campaign to convince lawmakers to pass the Rhode Island “Voting Rights Act” introduced by Senate President Valarie Lawson and House Majority Leader Katherine Kazarian.
But it appears the bill has already been declared dead for the year.
Lawson, House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski and Secretary of State Gregg Amore issued this joint statement on Monday, June 8:
“From the beginning, we have all understood the importance of passing a strong Rhode Island Voting Rights Act. But we also understand that as the federal administration continues to work to make it more difficult to access the ballot box, we have to do it right.”
“Advocates and other parties raised several concerns,” the statement said. “It is imperative that we enact as strong, enforceable, and defensible a bill as possible. With those priorities in mind, we recognize there is more work to do.”
“As drafted this year, the provisions of the Voting Rights Act would not take effect until the 2028 election cycle. Therefore, we will work over the course of the off-session to put forward as strong a bill as possible for consideration in 2027 and will continue to prioritize the Voting Rights Act in the upcoming session,” the statement continued.
The reaction from one angry advocate, Sen. Tiara Mack: “I’m not done fighting.”
How did we get here?
The legislation was introduced in response to thwarted Republican efforts to pass a federal SAVE Act to require proof of citizenship to register to vote and came weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court hollowed out a landmark Civil Rights-era law that has increased minority representation in Congress and elsewhere, opening the door for more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to maintain control the House.
“This is not abstract. This is about power,” Shahidah Ali, chairwoman of the political arm of the Rhode Island Coalition of Black Women, said at a voting rights rally that packed the State House Library on March 31.
“This is about who gets to participate in our democracy, and who is pushed out of it.”
On Sunday, June 7, Ali reiterated that warning and her frustration that the bill appears, despite its high-powered sponsors, to be in limbo going into the expected final days of the legislative session, saying she didn’t understand why the bill wasn’t moving as quickly as she thought it would.
“I feel like when you’re in a super majority and it’s something that’s needed after … the gutting of the Federal Voting Rights Act, I would think that this would be a no-brainer, that the Democrats in this state would understand the importance and the urgency of a bill to protect voters, especially Black voters,” she said.
Why hasn’t the bill moved?
As of Sunday, Rep. Kathy Fogarty, a co-sponsor of the House version of the bill (H8334), has not given up hope the bill would still pass. But, she said, “my understanding is that they were concerned …. [and] wanted to review” some of Attorney General Peter Neronha’s comments about the bill after Secretary of State Gregg Amore asked him for his input.
Fogarty said the May 7 leadership change in the House put the newly elected Speaker Blazejewski and Kazarian, in her newly elevated role as majority leader, in front of a proverbial “fire hose,” with the finalization of the proposed new $15.2 billion state budget their first priority.
With the need to finalize the budget, which won House approval on June 5, “I think that this just kind of got pushed to the side,” Fogarty said of the voting rights bill.
The backdrop
The proposed Rhode Island Voter Rights Act was introduced to enshrine federal protections against voter suppression, vote dilution and “racially-based gerrymandering” in state law.
The legislation was introduced in response to the push by President Donald Trump and his GOP allies in Congress for passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known more familiarly as the SAVE Act.
While Rhode Island already has its own Voter ID law requiring prospective voters to show a photo identification to cast their ballot, the SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship – such as a valid U.S. passport and certified birth certificate – to register to vote.
If the U.S. Senate were able to muster the votes to pass the SAVE Act, critics say millions could be disenfranchised, including married women whose adult names do not match the names on their birth certificates.
Speaking at the March 31 Rhode Island rally, U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner said not enough attention has gone to the proposed requirement that a voter present the same level of documentation to obtain a mail ballot, “but only if they showed up to their board of canvassers in person to prove their citizenship.” This would obviously be problematic for people too ill to leave their homes, hospitalized, out of the country or even, out of state on business.
As currently drafted, the proposed Rhode Island Voting Rights Act would take effect on January 1, 2027.
What were the concerns about the bill?
The edits Neronha’s staff suggested to the Secretary of State’s Office were largely cosmetic – the deletion of an extraneous word here or there, or clarification of a potentially muddy sentences.
In a June 6 letter to John Marion, executive director of the citizens-advocacy group Common Cause Rhode Island, Neronha said: “I do not view our comments on the proposed Act as particularly extensive nor burdensome nor time-consuming to implement, in whole or in part, should there be a desire to do so.”
Neronha’s letter said that his comments on the bill shouldn’t impede its passage, or be taken “even as a suggestion” that he doesn’t support the bill. His office’s role, he said, was to make a “laudable piece of legislation better if we could.”
“We undertook that task because we were asked to, and I agreed because I believe that passage of a Voting Rights Act is important to protecting the rights of Rhode Islanders and our democracy,” Neronha said.
Advocates are not giving up
In recent weeks, Ali said she went on radio to make an appeal to Black and brown men, in particular, to support the legislation, while she and other advocates distributed 3,300 postcards to be mailed to state lawmakers.
The message: “Dear Senator (Representative), The Voting Rights Act is one of the most important statutes we have in this country as it protects everyone’s right to vote and allows our country to function as a true democracy. Until it is codified into Rhode Island state law our fundamental Civil Rights are at risk.”
“We cannot afford to lose our Civil Rights with an election coming.”
This story has been updated with new information.
Rhode Island
Providence’s ‘Superman’ building: 13 years of empty promises over a state landmark – The Boston Globe
What Providence is going through is an unusually visible example of a problem facing many cities, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic: What combination of carrots and sticks can officials use to turn unwanted office space into something that suits a changing city’s needs?
Even if the building cannot be revived to its former glory, when office workers once poured out of the stunning marbled lobby during lunchtime to create a downtown buzz, surely developers and political leaders can do better.
“This becomes a symbol of this anxiety about Providence and its economic strength,” said Marisa Angell Brown, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society. “It raises that question: Has Providence turned the corner? Are we going to turn the corner?”
For years, the plan has been to redevelop the empty office tower into about 300 apartments, 20 percent of which would be below market rents, set aside for low- and moderate-income Rhode Islanders, along with commercial space on the ground floor. Ongoing squabbles about the size and scope of tax abatements from the city and state have delayed the project repeatedly. The redevelopment now hinges on a low-interest loan of up to $236 million from the US Department of Transportation, green lit for eligibility under former president Joe Biden then held up by the Trump administration.
Adding to the recent troubles, David Sweetser, the principal of High Rock Development and owner of the building since 2008, died unexpectedly last summer. The developer tapped its legal counsel, Michael Crossen, to continue with the project. A spokesperson for High Rock, Bill Fischer, told the editorial board that the firm is focused on finalizing funding details and remains “optimistic the project will proceed.” Fischer said once financing is in place, construction will be complete within 24 to 30 months.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley is urging patience. “I think it’s fair to say that the situation is frustrating and probably that many people, myself included, are anxious to see something happen, but big historic complicated buildings sometimes require complicated solutions,” Smiley told the Globe’s editorial board.
It’s a scenario playing out in commercial spaces across the nation, with office towers selling at deep discounts as owners struggle with low occupancy rates. If Providence can find a path forward to address a housing shortage while also reviving such a high-profile building, it could become a model for cities across the nation.
Transforming office space into apartments is notoriously tricky. Office configurations come with little interior natural light and plumbing that’s largely incompatible with residential layouts. Still, studies have shown that single-room occupancy units that ring the edge of the building — with shared kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, and living rooms in the center of the building — can work.
This type of low-cost downtown housing has traditionally carried a stigma, but it could be an option for students, young professionals, new arrivals to a city, or retirees. It could also reduce homelessness. Yes, it would not be a huge money generator for a landlord hoping to charge higher rents, but public subsidies could make it work.
Most agree: Tearing down the Superman building is not a great option. In 2017, former Providence mayor turned developer Joe Paolino floated the idea of replacing it with a modern office tower for an anchor tenant, a concept that sent shudders across the city and still reverberates.
“To tear down that building in the middle of city, it would be an absolute sin,” Michael Sabitoni, the president of the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council, told a Globe columnist in 2021.
Construction on the Art Deco building began in 1927. The building featured plaster, bronze work, and the very latest in modern elevator mechanics.
In 2019, the building was listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
The plight of the building has captivated Providence for too many years now.
In 2020, seven graduate students studying adaptive reuse at the Rhode Island School of Design reimagined uses for the Superman building. Ideas included several theaters and performance spaces, senior housing, a vertical farm, laboratories, and even an amusement park.
A recent op-ed in the Globe suggests: Stop trying to solve, and pay for, the whole building renovation at once. Activate the bottom four floors with a civic space, then let the apartments above follow.
Locals commonly ask why nearby Brown University, which has a massive endowment and needs building space, including graduate student housing, can’t make something happen.
Mayor Smiley said he thinks it’s best to stick with the current developer’s vision for apartments. “There’s a lot of external factors that unfortunately, and somewhat coincidentally, have complicated the timeline. But that doesn’t mean that it’s still not the best plan for the building.”
The mayor says he’s in regular touch with the developer. But few others seem to know what’s going on as they walk past scaffolding in the heart of downtown, and tolerance after more than a decade of delays is running thin. If the the building’s owner can’t get things moving, it should move on and let somebody else take a try at building something.
“It’s a shame that it just sits there and nobody is taking care of it,” said Behrouz Sarlak, owner of Loominous Rug Gallery, which sits a few blocks away from the Superman. “A lot can be done. You just have to be creative.”
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.
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