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Dear Neighbors:
I hope you are enjoying a May Breakfast, a Cinco de Mayo celebration or perhaps the satisfaction of having backed a Kentucky Derby winner. In this week’s letter I discuss how the state’s transportation policy measures against the Act on Climate mandates, and the progress of the study commission reviewing labor-management relations in the Providence Public Schools.
A. The Transportation Sector’s Role In Carbon Reduction
1. RIDOT’s Carbon Reduction Strategy
As I noted in my March 5, 2023 letter, a 2019 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory attributed 39% of the State’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the transportation sector. At a February 28, 2023 hearing, I asked Department of Transportation (RIDOT) Director Alviti if Rhode Island’s transportation sector could achieve its share of GHG emissions reductions to keep pace with the Act on Climate’s mandate for 2030 (which is a 45% reduction from 1990 levels). He replied that RIDOT was developing a data model to answer that question which would require a year to complete.
When RIDOT appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on April 9 of this year, Mr. Alviti stated that the report was completed, and that it indicated that RIDOT would meet its 2030 goal. Last week, I received a copy of RIDOT’s Carbon Reduction Strategy. From my initial review, it appears that the Director was referring to projections in a chart at page 18 of the report, which forecasts carbon reductions that can be achieved if there is a sufficiently large shift to electric vehicles.
2. Questions and Concerns
The document does not describe how the GHG emissions model was constructed. On its surface, it appears to rely primarily or exclusively on conversions to electric cars rather than on reductions in vehicle miles traveled (through shifts to bicycles, public transportation, etc.) (On that note, I have identified full funding of RIPTA as a budget priority I have requested from Senate leadership.) It is not clear whether the model accounts for emissions caused by the generation of the electricity needed to power the cars. Also, the magnitude of the shift to electric cars may outpace electric vehicle supply and/or demand. The appendix includes objections by various environmental and transit advocates based on a wide range of issues.
To coin a phrase, there is a lot riding on the accuracy of this model of the transportation sector. I plan to follow up with the Department of Transportation to gain a better understanding of whether this report provides an achievable path for the transportation sector meets the emissions reductions required by the Act on Climate.
B. The Providence Public Schools Study Commission
The Senate study commission reviewing labor-management relations at Providence Public Schools will hold its next meeting tomorrow, Monday, May 6 at 5:00 p.m. in the Senate Lounge. At that time, the Commission will review and discuss a third draft of a Commission report. This draft (which will become public at the meeting) builds upon the First Draft and Second Draft by incorporating specific concerns and suggestions from Commission members into the report’s basic framework that resulted from the public comment, expert presentations and documents the Commission assembled over the past eight months.
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