Disaster Capitalism in Rhode Island

How pipeline expansion and bike lane removal are part of the same strategy.

In her 2007 book The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein explained how corporatist political actors exploit crises, such as natural or man-made disasters, to establish policies that favor the rich while average residents are distracted by the disaster and unable to develop adequate resistance. Though Klein saw the use of this strategy through a national or international lens, I have covered instances in recent years of state and municipal leaders utilizing this strategy.

In January 2019, then-Governor Gina Raimondo declared a state of emergency on Aquidneck Island in response to “calls from customers on Aquidneck Island receiving low-pressure on their gas system and some concerns with the gas.” For reasons not clearly understood at the time, gas customers in Portsmouth were not receiving adequate amounts of gas. People went without heat for weeks.

In October 2019 the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers (DPUC) issued a report, written by Ronald Gerwatowski, outlining the nature of the failures that led to the problems in Portsmouth and outlining a series of fixes that fossil fuel companies Enbridge and National Grid needed to implement to avoid a repeat of the issue. Included in that report was a recommendation that National Grid and Enbridge install an additional 12-inch fracked gas pipeline to supplement the existing 6-inch pipeline.

The only problem? There is no indication in the report that the existing gas pipeline's size or capacity had anything to do with the problems experienced in January on the island. National Grid stated in the report that they had no capacity issues.

But National Grid and Enbridge wanted a bigger pipeline, and Governor Raimondo was happy to give them one. The plan would be to increase profitable fracked gas to the island and further addict customers to a power source that poisons our planet and continues to exacerbate climate change. The plan to build such a pipeline had been around for years - but there was no good reason to do anything about it - until a near disaster gave the Raimondo Administration a chance to curry favor with National Grid and slip an unneeded recommendation into their report.

Did I mention that the report's author, was a former employee of National Grid?

The proposed pipeline has not been built and is so far not slated to be, but this isn't because fracked gas and pipeline companies have given up. Instead, as I write here, efforts have moved, at least for now, from Portsmouth to Burrillville. I expect the Portsmouth pipeline idea isn't dead or dormant - it's just laying low, waiting for a chance to pop back up.¹

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley was Gina Raimondo's Chief of Staff during this time, and if he hadn’t learned this lesson there, he was present and involved in its execution. I thought of this when reading that the Mayor has unveiled a list of ideas to deal with overflow traffic caused by the incompetence of Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee and the closure of the Washington Bridge, which included a series of ideas that deal with the traffic problems - and one that does not.

Just as Governor Raimondo supported fossil fuel billionaires when it came to pipeline expansion and unneeded, billion-dollar fracked gas and diesel oil-burning power plants in the pristine forests of Burrillville, Mayor Smiley supports the interests of Providence-area business owners, real estate developers, and landlords.²

In his plan to mitigate the impact of the Washington Bridge closure and reconstruction, Mayor Smiley included “plans to remove the two-way protected bike path along South Water Street and relocate the infrastructure to the raised sidewalk immediately adjacent to the existing bike path to restore the lanes of travel to two lanes, maintain a parking lane with adequate space and preserve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure along South Water street.”

These bike lanes, popular with people and unpopular with businesses like Plant City and Brown University, are on the chopping block not because it will help alleviate traffic, but because business owners, real estate developers, and landlords want it.

The cost to remove the bike lanes, conservatively estimated to be $750k, is shocking - because when residents ask for services, they are often told that we are in a post-Covid recovery and that the government has no money to do things that benefit middle- and low-income residents. But when it comes to doing things like moving the Kennedy Plaza bus hub to the remote hinterlands of downtown because rich, downtown landlords want to turn Kennedy Plaza into a public space for themselves, not for workers, students, and the unhoused - we can easily find the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to do so. The government only pleads poverty when it comes to the interests of low- and middle-income residents - it always has money for the rich and connected.

“The real problem, since the bike lanes were put in is that a couple of businesses, like my alma mater Brown, are opposed to bike lanes because they think they need more parking spaces there,” said Providence resident Sam to Mayor Smiley at last night's forum, and their analysis is dead on.

No one at last night's forum and only one person at a recent City Council public comment session spoke in favor of Mayor Smiley's plan to remove the South Water Street bike lanes. The idea is not only unpopular but nearly universally opposed. Despite this opposition, Mayor Smiley has not announced a change of mind, and really, how could he? The wants and needs of the public are negligible compared to the wants and needs of the small number of corporate players he serves.

Here’s the video:

1. If you are interested in opposing expanded pipelines in Rhode Island, consider attending this public hearing:

On Wednesday, April 10 at 5:30 p.m., there will be a public hearing at the Jesse M. Smith Memorial Library in Burrillville. Come to the hearing and tell the Department of Environmental Management you oppose the renewal of Enbridge's compressor station operation permit.

2. More disaster capitalism: Governor Daniel McKee, more obvious and less politically sharp than former Governor Gina Raimondo and Mayor Brett Smiley, is using the recent charges against RIPTA CEO Scott Avedisian to further the takeover of RIPTA by DOT.