Partisan differences energize power plans

Rhode Island energy policy has evolved and changed course at the will of its chief executive for the past decade.
For former Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, the answer to Rhode Island’s energy future was usually offshore wind power as embodied by Deepwater Wind’s proposed turbine farm off the Block Island shore, which he paved the way for. His former chief of staff remains the company’s CEO.
Carcieri signed the Renewable Enregy Standards bill requiring 16 percent of the state’s power to come from renewable sources by 2019, but solar industry leaders say he scaled back incentives for smaller-scale projects.
Ask Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee about renewable energy and expect to hear the virtues of hydropower ready to be tapped from the great rivers of the Canadian north.
During the Chafee administration, Rhode Island has built up some of its renewable energy programs and diversified beyond wind, even if a deal for Canadian hydro has eluded him.
So where will Rhode Island’s next governor take the state’s energy policy?
As you would expect, the Democratic and Republican candidates differ significantly on what the state’s energy policy should be.
Neither Republican primary candidate – Cranston Mayor Allan Fung and Barrington businessman Ken Block – include energy policy as part of their published economic plans.
Both oppose Deepwater, fellow Republican Carcieri’s signature energy policy, and have argued over whether Fung sought campaign contributions from Deepwater.
And both would pursue scaling back any renewable energy incentives that increase electrical rates (which almost all do).
“I certainly don’t support the Deepwater project and the huge subsidies that are aligned with it,” Fung said in a recent interview. “Ratepayers are going to see a significant increase in their bills in future years.”
Block expressed similar sentiments and added that, if Rhode Island was going to host the five-turbine demonstration wind farm off Block Island, it should have been given a right of first refusal to purchase power from the larger farm being planned in federal waters to the east.
“The contract is far too generous – Rhode Island ratepayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars,” Block said of Deepwater. “The worst part is that Rhode Island does not have the first option to purchase the potentially cheaper power from the bigger project, even though we are footing the bill for the demonstration project.” As recently as last year, Chafee’s support for Deepwater’s Block Island project was critical by allowing its transmission cable to cross state-owned Scarborough Beach when the town of Narragansett rejected a route underneath its Town Beach.
But now that Deepwater has received all of its state approvals, it’s unclear exactly what options a governor entering office in January would have to try to scuttle the project.
When asked if he would actively try to kill Deepwater if elected, Fung said he didn’t know, because he didn’t know if it would be possible.
Block declined to say whether he would attempt to take action against Deepwater at this late date if elected.
Fung said he shares Chafee’s enthusiasm for hydropower, but wouldn’t support requiring National Grid to negotiate a long-term contract with a Canadian power company to secure it, as had been proposed.
On hydropower, Block said only that he supports it “if it makes economic sense for Rhode Island.”
Last month, the General Assembly passed an expansion of the state’s distributed generation program, which allows renewable energy producers to sign long-term contracts for their power with National Grid.
Both Republicans oppose it, with Block tying it to the 2004 Renewable Energy Standard.
“I do not support this expansion because we have not addressed the fact that another program, the Renewable Energy Standard, is sending around $9 million every year to out-of-state renewable energy projects that we should not be funding,” Block said.
Block would move control of the Renewable Energy Fund away from the R.I. Commerce Corporation because of what he describes as the agency’s poor track record.
The Democrats, of course, are much more optimistic about renewable energy and the return state investment in it will provide.
All three major primary candidates support both the demonstration and larger Deepwater projects.
But unlike many issues on which they all agree, the Democrats have different ideas about the best strategies for promoting renewable energy.
To boost investment in renewable energy, General Treasurer Gina M. Raimondo would create a new quasi-state “Green Bank” in which resources from existing programs, such as the Renewable Energy Fund, would be consolidated to help finance and assist new projects.
Based roughly on Connecticut’s Clean Energy Investment and Finance Authority, Raimondo’s Green Bank would have borrowing authority to capitalize itself. Raimondo spokeswoman Nicole Kayner said the Green Bank would be similar in size to the Connecticut agency, which, according to its most recent annual report, had assets of $99 million at the end of fiscal 2013.
The Green Bank would lend money to municipalities at low interest rates to prepare their infrastructure for the impacts of climate change and to homeowners and businesses to install clean energy technology.
It would repay the bonds with the repayments from those borrowers, but presumably be backstopped by the state in case of sizable defaults.
“The bank will be designed to minimize taxpayer risk,” Kayner wrote.
Providence Mayor Angel Taveras promises to put the state on the path to purchasing 40 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
That would mean a significant increase in the pace of renewable energy purchases.
Under the Renewable Energy Standard, utilities are required to buy 8.5 percent of the electricity sold on to consumers from renewable source this year, a total that grows to 14.5 percent in 2020 (a change from the original 16 percent).
To get there Taveras would rely on significantly reducing the amount of power consumed, through energy efficiency initiatives, and building renewable capacity with the help of his Ocean State Infrastructure Trust, an $800 million fund capitalized through a combination of existing resources, borrowing and annual appropriation, that could lend to municipal energy projects.
Taveras, whose plan is based on adapting the Massachusetts Green Communities Act, said he would not create a new independent authority to make funding decisions.
Even with financing assistance from a new Infrastructure Fund, it is unclear whether without new incentives, Taveras’ goal is at all realistic.
Dealing with climate change is a priority for Clay Pell, but his approach to it revolves more around energy efficiency, Smart Grid technology and emissions reduction than financing renewables.
On Raimondo’s Green Bank, campaign spokesman Devin Driscoll in an email said Pell “does not believe the state needs to establish another fund that requires more oversight and management.”
Pell supports hitting the Renewable Energy Standard target and supported the expansion of the distributed generation program. He supports large-scale hydropower but doesn’t believe National Grid should be ordered to buy it or that it should come at the expense of other renewables, Driscoll wrote. •

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