Speaker Shekarchi speaks on environmental legislation wins and priorities

"In my hometown of Warwick, we have 39 miles of coastline and I see and feel beach erosion, climate change, and sea level rise," said the Speaker.

Last Wednesday, Rhode Island Speaker of the House K Joseph Shekarchi (Democrat, District 23, Warwick) spoke briefly at an event sponsored by Fountainhead RI [which does not take its name or guiding principles from the infamous 1943 Ayn Rand novel] about the Rhode Island House of Representatives record on the environment. The event was in the Waterfire Arts Center.

Here’s the Speaker’s talk, edited for clarity:

“I want to acknowledge we've done a lot of great things for the environment over the last three years in the State of Rhode Island and a lot of the great work we've done emanated from the House and it does not happen without my Majority Leader Christopher Blazejewski (Democrat, District 2, Providence) and our climate champion in the House, Representative Lauren Carson (Democrat, District 75, Newport). Lauren is bright, smart, and talented. Long before she ever got involved in politics, she's been an environmentalist - when it wasn't in fashion to be an environmentalist. She cares about it, but more than caring about it, she knows how to get it done. Lauren is one of the crown jewels we have in the House. Especially on the environment, where she takes on the most difficult issues - whether it's study commissions where people don't speak to each other or get along or whether she's fighting all kinds of riptides in the House - and we can be a pretty turbulent place. Lauren navigates it, gets it done and gets it done well. Lauren, thank you for what you do and continue to do. Chris Blazjewski, my right hand, my best friend.

“All good things that have come in the House come from Chris. He's been a champion of the environment, not only the Act on Climate but so many other things that I'll touch upon in a minute.

“I want to recognize two other leaders who work in the state. I cannot not recognize my good friend - and the guardian of the environment in Rhode Island - Terry Gray, the director of the Department of Environmental Management (DEM). Terry has had a distinguished career at DEM. He continues to effectively operate DEM and I have a lot of faith and confidence that when Terry comes to me and says, ‘Speaker, I need four new jobs’ - FTEs, we call them - full-time equivalents - ‘to protect the environment’ I know he needs it and I know it's real.

“Other directors come and they say, ‘I need eight’ when they need four. Terry always tells it the way it is and 90% of the time he gets what he asks for because he does a good job. It's not because I like him, which I do, it's because he does a good job.

“Chris Kearns is here from the Office of Energy Resources (OER). He does a great job with electrification, electric cars, battery charging stations, and all that wonderful stuff.

“From the business community, there’s Melissa Travis (President/CEO of RISCPA) who gets it done, and our friends in the labor community, [like] Pat Crowley (Secretary/Treasurer of the RI AFL-CIO), who I'm proud to say in many ways is a good friend.

“Pat gets it, and so does Melissa. Being a good environmentalist doesn't mean you're anti-labor. Being a good environmentalist doesn't mean you are anti-business. They can, should, and have to co-exist. That's how we're going to get good things done - by working together.

“Rhode Island has a rich history. [Earlier this] year noted historian, author, and environmentalist, Douglas Brinkley came to the Rhode Island State House to recognize what we, as a small state, did with the Act on Climate. Our state is 37 miles long and 48 miles wide. That's significant because though we're a very small state, we have 400 miles of coastline if you can believe it. In my hometown of Warwick, we have 39 miles of coastline and I see and feel beach erosion, climate change, and sea level rise.

“It's real and it's happening and that's why we need to address it. But we need to address it in a way that makes sense with where we are in our economy and our life, and also from a future standpoint - How is this going to affect our children and grandchildren in five, 10, or 15 years? That's what the Act on Climate has done and continues to do.

“As I said before, the General Assembly has taken the lead in many areas and Lauren Carson has been at the forefront of that. We made banning styrofoam a priority. We have adopted the Ocean State Climate Resilience Fund as a way to support many environmental [initiatives] at EC4. Some of our other reps have worked to ban PFAS in food Packaging and put PFAS restrictions on our drinking water. We continue, with Chris Kearns’s help, to electrify the state's roadways and create an infrastructure of chargers for electric cars and electric batteries.

“Many of you don't know me, but some of you who do will know that my top priority is housing. I mention that because housing is not mutually exclusive to a good environment. You can have good housing production and still be sustainable in the environment. In the State of Rhode Island and the House in particular, we received an award for the Green Buildings Act. We were one of the first states to initiate it in 2009. We updated it in 2017 and last year. We've won awards on the Green Buildings Act.

“When we aligned ourselves with the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council, which is the EC4, some of the legislative wins were not just about legislation that we passed, it's about bad legislation that we stopped. After the other chamber passed ‘advanced recycling’ a plastics burning incinerator bill, it was Chris Blazjewski who led the charge to defeat that in the House because it was bad for business and bad for the environment. I want to thank Chris for that. I want to acknowledge that it's not always what we do, it's what we prevent from happening.

“Those are just some of the points I want to talk about, but I want to also focus on the business aspect of green energy and green jobs because that's where the future is. We can coexist… and also do wonderful things for the environment. We've done some great things in Rhode Island and we're going to continue to work hard. We have had great growth in our companies here. I know a lot of you here today are from the business world looking at green energy and the green economy [and asking] ‘How can I benefit?’ That's a great thing.

“One example? We have a company called Utildata, and for lack of a better word, because I'm very elementary in this stuff, they [are developing devices like smart meters to respond in real-time to the growing complexity and dynamism of the grid, doing what centralized control rooms cannot.]¹ It's a startup company that's doing phenomenal things. Microsoft and NVIDIA are investing in them. They're based here in Rhode Island. Amy Moses left the environmental community to work in the corporate world but did so while keeping her environmental conscience. Amy, thank you for that wonderful company and we're expecting good things from Utildata as you move forward, not only here in Rhode Island but nationally. They're a national leader.

“We're on the cusp of so many great things. Thank you for being here and thank you for bringing this wonderful event to Rhode Island... Please continue to do what you do. Not only is it good politics, it's good business, it's good for the environment and we need it.”

Here’s the full video:

1. This section has been rewritten to more accurately describe what Utiladata is doing.