From rooftop solar to renewables, Foulkes releases her energy plan for RI

• Helena Foulkes unveiled a plan to recommit Rhode Island to renewable energy, countering her opponent Governor Dan McKee.
• Her proposal includes a $40 million fund for solar and battery installations and adding solar arrays to 250 public buildings.
• Foulkes argues that Rhode Island can increase renewable energy investments while also lowering high electric rates.
• The plan also calls for greater scrutiny of Rhode Island Energy and increased staffing at the Public Utilities Commission.

Helena Foulkes wants to recommit Rhode Island to renewable energy with the creation of a new $40 million fund to help residents and small businesses pay for solar and battery installations, as well as a program to install rooftop arrays on 250 schools and other public buildings across the state.

The proposed actions are part of an energy plan that she unveiled April 2 and is presenting as a counterpoint to moves made by her Democratic primary opponent Gov. Dan McKee that critics say would water down the state’s renewable energy programs.

Foulkes calls her plan “No False Choices” in a nod to McKee’s argument that investments in renewables need to be slowed down to ease the burden of utility bills on Rhode Islanders.

The former CVS executive counters that Rhode Island can bump up investments in solar, batteries and other clean technologies while still lowering electric rates that are among the highest in the nation. Diversifying energy sources and reducing the region’s reliance on natural gas can only help in that cause, she says.

“I don’t think it is a choice between cost and protecting the climate,” Foulkes told The Journal. “I think we can do both at the same time. And by leaning into renewables we can make a real difference in people’s pocketbooks and keep Rhode Island on a path towards protecting our climate.”

Foulkes acknowledged the challenges to renewable energy from the Trump administration’s war on the industry – a key reason cited by McKee for the need to slow down state mandates – but she said the incumbent governor should be fighting back.

“The Trump piece is an explanation, but it shouldn’t be an excuse,” Foulkes said.

Foulkes says she may delay renewables target and blames McKee for it

The centerpiece of McKee’s plan to save ratepayers $1 billion over five years is to rewrite state law and push off the target date to offset all energy usage with renewables from the current 2033 to 2050.

Foulkes said she would also contemplate changing the Renewable Energy Standard – though she hasn’t decided on a new target date – but blamed her rival for the need to do so, saying that McKee had done too little to push forward development.

She also said that she hasn’t made up her mind about what to do, if anything, with the interim targets set by the Act on Climate, the bedrock law that underpins greenhouse gas reductions in Rhode Island. The law requires the state to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, but it also mandates interim reductions by 2030 and 2040.

Environmental advocates have raised concerns that the state isn’t on track to get to those coming goals and could face lawsuits if it fails to get to them. A consultant to the state has testified in the legislature that a weakening of the Renewable Energy Standard would at the least put the 2030 target out of reach.

Foulkes in the interview championed offshore wind and called the Trump administration’s attempts to kill the Revolution Wind project being built off Rhode Island “crazy.” The project started sending its first power to the grid last month and is expected to go into full operation before the end of the year.

She cited studies projecting hundreds of millions of dollars in annual savings to consumers from the project as reason to back the wind farm and others like it.

When asked about expanding natural gas pipelines to New England, as some have suggested as a solution to the region’s energy woes, Foulkes didn’t shut the door on more capacity, but said the focus should be on renewable energy, which, she argues, can be developed more quickly.

“There’s so much more we can be doing in the here and now,” she said.

More: Offshore wind project targeted by Trump administration starts delivering power

Foulkes plan calls for greater scrutiny of Rhode Island Energy

As part of her energy plan, Foulkes wants greater scrutiny of Rhode Island Energy, the state’s only gas supplier and dominant electric utility. She is a supporter of tighter controls on infrastructure spending by the company.

She also said she would increase staffing at the Public Utilities Commission, the state agency that oversees Rhode Island Energy’s operations.

Foulkes was asked about McKee’s nomination to the PUC of business consultant Donna Sams, someone with no apparent energy expertise, to replace Abigail Anthony, who has been on the commission for nearly a decade, was a clean energy advocate before that and holds a doctorate in environmental and natural resource economics.

“I know Donna from my previous experience. She’s very smart but she has no expertise in energy,” Foulkes said. “I do believe the governor could have found someone with real expertise in this space.”

Foulkes’ plan calls for big boost to rooftop solar

Foulkes’ energy plan calls for installing 100 new rooftop solar systems on public buildings in the first year of her administration and another 150 in the second year. With a key federal solar tax credit ending in 2027, it’s important to move fast, Foulkes said.

Under a program to boost small-scale renewables, she would set aside $20 million in state funds for residential solar and battery installations and another $20 million for small businesses. She’s leaving the door open to increasing the funds over time but said that it’s impossible to make up for the loss in federal funding under the Trump administration.

“So we just have to be doing everything we can in the state,” Foulkes said.