RI Environmental Principles

[Matt Freedman <freedman@citizen.org>]

  RHODE ISLAND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS RELEASE RESOLUTION ON RESTRUCTURING 
  COALITION CALLS FOR CLEAN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
  
  The Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI), a coalition of 
  50 state groups, unanimously approved a resolution on May 1 
  regarding electric utility restructuring.  The resolution, 
  enclosed with this message, calls for strong measures to promote 
  energy efficiency, renewable energy and require environmental 
  comparability for out-of-state generation.
  
  For more information on this resolution, contact Karina Lutz 
  (Karina_Lutz@brown.edu).
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------
  ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL OF RHODE ISLAND RESOLUTION REGARDING 
  UTILITY RESTRUCTURING
  
  WHEREAS air pollution is responsible for 70,000 premature deaths and tens 
  of billions of dollars in health care costs nationwide each year;
  
  WHEREAS electricity generation is the single greatest industrial air 
  polluter, contributing 65% of the oxides of sulfur, 35% of the carbon 
  dioxide, 25% of the oxides of nitrogen, 20-40% of the particulate matter, 
  and 20% of the air toxics;
  
  WHEREAS environmentally unconscionable methods of electricity generation 
  also cause water pollution, create nuclear hazards and waste, cause acid 
  rain, decrease agricultural productivity, constitute a probable cause of 
  global climate change, and deplete natural resources;
  
  WHEREAS Rhode Island is in serious nonattainment of Clean Air Act standards 
  for ozone, partly due to electric utility pollution blown in from other 
  states;
  
  WHEREAS cost-effective energy efficiency technologies exist today that 
  could save up to 50 to 75% of America's energy use;
  
  WHEREAS increasingly local and efficient production of electricity from 
  renewable sources (such as wind, micro-hydropower and solar) and cleaner 
  sources (such as fuel cells and natural gas) would improve the health of 
  the economy and environment;
  
  AND WHEREAS utility restructuring has the potential to tremendously affect 
  pollution levels and resource use in Rhode Island and the region, for 
  better or worse;
  
  THEREFORE, The Environment Council of Rhode Island asserts that the Rhode 
  Island General Assembly, the Governor, the public utilities commission and 
  state and federal agencies should insist any utility restructuring creates 
  real environmental benefits. Rhode Island should take the opportunity to 
  lead the nation by setting an example of utility restructuring that not 
  only contains adequate safeguards for the environment, public health, and 
  consumer and environmental justice, but builds them into the structure of 
  the electric utility system.
  
  THEREFORE, utility restructuring should include:
  
  * Strong regulation of the environmental impact of both old and new power 
  plants.  Clean Air Act standards must be retained and strengthened. 
  Nuclear safety and decommissioning regulations must be properly 
  enforced. Power plants must be decommissioned or retired if compensation 
  is to be paid to the utility for their stranded costs.
  
  * Standards for the siting of new power facilities, to avoid exacerbating 
  environmental racism and classism and poor land use.
  
  * Techniques for ensuring that out-of-state generators meet standards 
  equivalent to that expected of Rhode Island's in-state generators. Our 
  electricity consumption should not be subsidized by degradation of others' 
  environmental quality.
  
  * Structures that favor energy efficiency over electricity production. 
  Industrial users should not be given undue competitive advantage over 
  smaller users, since more equitable pricing would increase the amount of 
  industrial energy efficiency that would be cost-effective. Distribution 
  companies should continue to be incentivized to provide demand-side 
  management (energy efficiency and load leveling) above and beyond the 
  efficiency and renewables set-aside. Energy services companies should have 
  the opportunity to fairly compete for receipt of the set-aside. Preference 
  should be given to programs designed to overcome market barriers to 
  efficiency and renewable resources.
  
  * Measures that foster the use of clean, renewable resources. Private and 
  public sources of funding for renewable energy research and development 
  ought to be substantially increased during the transition period.
  
  AND THEREFORE, the public utilities commission should retain its power to 
  regulate the environmental impact of utilities, and should remain 
  independent of political control, while accountable to the public.
  
  Submitted by the Sierra Club, Rhode Island Chapter
  Approved unanimously by the Environment Council, May 1, 1996
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------
  To receive regular information on electricity restructuring 
  issues from Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project, send the 
  following message to listproc@essential.org: SUBSCRIBE
  ELEC-LIST [your name - organizational affiliation - home state]
  
  The Critical Mass home page is located at http://www.essential.org/CMEP