ECRI Lobby Day is an opportunity for you to make your voice heard on important environmental bills in Rhode Island. Photo: Matt via Creative Commons 2.0
On Tuesday afternoon, April 25, at 3PM, the Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI) is holding its annual “ECRI Lobby Day” event at the Rhode Island State House (State Room, second floor), and you are invited. ECRI Lobby Day is an Earth Day tradition in Rhode Island that goes back for decades.
ECRI is the coalition of all 62 small, medium, and large environmental organizations in Rhode Island. Every year, ECRI members, including CLF, lobby at the State House for or against a variety of pending bills that would have a significant impact on our environment. And every year, mid-way through the legislative session, ECRI assembles a list of its most important “Legislative Priorities” for that year to emphasize on Lobby Day.
ECRI members will gather in the State Room at 3PM for a brief speaking program. Featured speakers this year include Governor Gina Raimondo, Senator Josh Miller, and Rep. Deborah Ruggiero. After that, ECRI members will fan out to find their own state Senators and Representatives to lobby them on the ECRI Priorities.
ECRI Lobby Day is open to the public, and CLF members (and others) are warmly invited to attend.
This year, one of ECRI’s top legislative priorities is a bill I have blogged about before, H-5897, which would effectively kill the proposed Invenergy fossil-fuel power plant.
Another ECRI priority that CLF strongly supports are companion bills H-5274 and S-112, which would enlarge Rhode Island’s highly successful Renewable Energy Growth Program. A similar bill was introduced into the General Assembly last year, but did not pass. This bill would greatly enlarge a renewable energy program enacted in 2014.
In addition, H-5369 is a highly innovative carbon-pricing bill that would be the first such carbon-pricing system established in the United States. The bill is the brainchild of the EnergizeRI Coalition, itself a coalition of Rhode Island environmental organizations (including CLF). The bill seeks to lower emissions by putting a price on carbon and creates a Clean Energy and Jobs Fund, paid for by a fee on fossil fuel polluters. The Fund would invest in clean energy and protect consumers from rising energy costs. Carbon pricing is a market-based solution to carbon pollution that will lower climate-damaging emissions while energizing the economy.
Participating in ECRI Lobby Day is a way of making your voice heard in support of currently pending bills which, if enacted, could have a meaningful effect on reducing harmful carbon emissions and promoting clean renewable energy.
ECRI Lobby Day
April 25, 3PM
Rhode Island State House
State Room, Second Floor
