State Climate Committee Gets Going

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — Photos and maps of Rhode Island coastal areas at risk or already suffering from rising sea levels and storm surges were displayed Dec. 6 at the inaugural meeting of the Rhode Island Climate Change Commission. 

The 28-member board authorized in 2010 by the General Assembly brought together state lawmakers and organizations representing businesses, environmental groups, the education sector and government agancies.

Committee chairman Sen. Josh Miller, D-Cranston, expressed optimism that the group would fulfill its goal of crafting legislation for comprehensive climate-change adaptation. But, he said, "there's a little bit of urgency and anxiety around this issue. There always has been. That's the nature of the issue."

Any concrete legislation likely won't be introduced until the 2013 legislative session.

"When you rush to that February (2012) deadline you don't ordinarily get a good product," said committee member Rep. Arthur Handy, D-Cranston, who also heads the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

Subcommittees are expected to hold meetings early next year, while the entire board plans to meet again in March.

"There's a lot of groundwork to lay to present this to the legislature and the general public," said committee member Jane Austin of Save The Bay.

The meeting was hosted by The Rhode Island Foundation at its downtown headquarters. The foundation provided staff and administrative support for organizing the committee.

According to the 2010 Climate Risk Reduction Act (pdf), the average temperature in Rhode Island has increased 1.5 degrees since 1970; winter temperatures are up 4 degrees. It notes that if fossil-fuel emissions continue at their current rate, the annual number of days more than 90 degrees is expected to grow sharply from about five a year today to about 50 at the end of the century.

Comments

[Vito Buonomano III]

The best thing RI can do to mitigate climate change is move forward with the ocean wind farms planned off Block Island ASAP. I am sure National Grid will fight it tooth and nail because utility rates will need to go up and this will hurt their short term profits.
Land based wind turbines and PV will have very little impact on the Grid.

Any scientist with half a brain will tell you electricity generation is one of the main causes of climate change and C02 generation because it is so fossil fuel intensive.