PROVIDENCE — After months of controversy and threat of a lawsuit by the Rhode Island Attorney General, the Rhode Island Economic Development Council (EDC) has released the so-called “white paper” outlining plans for a container port in Quonset/Davisville.
The document, written in October 2000 in preparation for the 2002 budget, estimates the cost of the port to be $3.8 million for that year. The 2002 budget, signed into law yesterday by Governor Almond, did not contain funds for container port development, although it did contain $1.5 million for an environmental impact study regarding the port.
Over the past several months, the EDC and the Attorney General’s office have argued over whether the paper was ever in fact forwarded to Governor Almond’s budget office. Yesterday, the Attorney General’s office reaffirmed it intended to file a lawsuit in Superior Court seeking to force public disclosure of the document if the EDC did not release the document by 4 p.m. today.
