{"id":34135,"date":"2017-06-20T10:39:01","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T09:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=34135"},"modified":"2017-06-23T14:21:11","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T13:21:11","slug":"rhode-island-grassroots-gas-plant-fight-takes-national-significance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2017\/06\/20\/rhode-island-grassroots-gas-plant-fight-takes-national-significance\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-era climate resistance, from a beachside in Rhode Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 8am on a sunny Sunday in June, around 40 people are gathered at a beachside carpark in Charlestown, in the US state of Rhode Island.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former senator and state governor Lincoln Chafee blends in with town councillors and concerned citizens in jeans, fleece vest and baseball cap. Coffee and Dunkin\u2019 Donuts fuel warm greetings and a handful of speeches, flanked by Keep Rhode Island Beautiful banners.<\/p>\n

These early risers have come to show their opposition to a gas power station planned for Burrillville, on the inland edge of the ‘Ocean State’. In a low-key, congenial protest, three men from Burrillville are setting off on a three-day, 78-mile hike along the wooded North-South trail that links the two communities.<\/p>\n

The campaigners say Invenergy\u2019s Clear River Energy Centre – the 900MW plant in question – will blow Rhode Island\u2019s carbon budget, and only community pressure can stop it.<\/p>\n

Since US\u00a0president Donald Trump nixed federal action on climate change in order to go all out for American coal, oil and gas, local resistance\u00a0like this has taken\u00a0on a national dimension. In the absence of a federal\u00a0plan to shift from dirty to clean energy, states are now stepping forward to claim leadership.<\/p>\n

Rhode Island was one of 12 states to sign up to the US Climate Alliance after Trump declared his intention<\/a> on 1 June to pull the country out of the Paris Agreement. A further\u00a0ten states have subsequently aligned with the pact\u2019s pledge to uphold the US’ commitments to the deal. Collectively, they account for 40% of US greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

But realising state-level targets depends on decisions about fossil fuel infrastructure, which often face local opposition based on local concerns.\u00a0With a vacuum at the top,\u00a0the\u00a0US contribution to global carbon-cutting efforts is set to\u00a0play out through\u00a0a thousand more community battles.<\/p>\n

History shows that the\u00a0cumulative effect of these small movements\u00a0that often fail to grab national headlines is nonetheless significant. The Sierra Club’s\u00a0Beyond Coal campaign, which builds coalitions of community actors to oppose new developments,\u00a0has blocked construction of 189 proposed coal plants. Along with lobbying for clean energy support and retirement of old coal plants, this has contributed to a cut in annual CO2 emissions from the US electricity sector of\u00a0538 million tonnes over the past decade – that’s five times the decadal emissions of\u00a0Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaring about climate is not just for the activists, it is not just for the liberal professors and scientists, it is for average, ordinary citizens,\u201d Jason Olkowski, Burrillville resident and MC for the event, tells Climate Home. \u201cIf the ordinary citizens don\u2019t get involved, the vested interests that want to preserve the status quo, they will win.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Burrillville resident Jason Olkowski has become an avid\u00a0anti-gas plant campaigner (Pic: Megan Darby)<\/p><\/div>\n

Local activism is less entrenched along party and ideological lines than the\u00a0national politics of climate change. A believer in small government and fiscal conservatism – Republican values – Olkowski is not your typical eco-warrior. When Invenergy announced the project<\/a> in August 2015, he was inclined to give them a hearing and sceptical of groups waving homemade protest placards.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these environmental activists began to come up and at first, we didn\u2019t really pay any attention to them. We thought \u2018oh, they oppose all stuff like this\u2019. But they were trying really hard to engage the community, so we started to listen,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Local factors allowed Keep RI Beautiful to take off, transcending partisan politics. The small town of 16,000 people already has a gas power plant and compressor station. The prospect of razing 200 acres of trees for another major bit of infrastructure\u00a0caused consternation.<\/p>\n

Olkowski’s wife was raised in Burrillville, catching frogs in the wetland and hiking the forests with her brothers. They moved back as a family to give the same kind of upbringing to their daughters – who, he apologises, could not be mustered out of bed in time to attend the morning\u2019s demo.<\/p>\n

The Clear River development threatened that way of life. And the more he learned, the more Olkowski became convinced it was both damaging and unnecessary.<\/p>\n

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As a Republican voter turned independent, Olkowski says with understatement he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d by Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw from the Paris pact. As VP at a multinational software company, he sees the move to a green economy as the next technological revolution – not the job-killer Trump claims. In his professional life, he has seen attitudes from overseas colleagues towards US citizens\u00a0hardening as a result of Trump’s position.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, my party has been hijacked by special interests, by the fossil fuel industry,” he says. “I am hopeful that people will wake up to that. Until something like this happens to you and you have a connection to it, you don\u2019t really understand all the factors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposition to the plant is having an impact. The development had looked like a slam dunk when Invenergy boss Michael Polsky launched the project<\/a>\u00a0flanked by\u00a0state governor Gina Raimondo – a Democrat – and trade unions.<\/p>\n

But after a series of public hearings and legal challenges, the developer was forced to change its water supply arrangements, delaying the project and increasing costs.<\/p>\n

Further hearings are scheduled before the state\u2019s Energy Facility Siting Board will decide whether to grant a permit, no sooner than early 2018. Whichever way the decision goes, an appeal is likely to follow. Meanwhile, a lawsuit is pending against the revised water plan.<\/p>\n

The case for the plant focuses on jobs and cheaper electricity. The case against highlights natural beauty under threat. A glance at social media shows which has best captured the public imagination.<\/p>\n

A Facebook post<\/a> for Keep Rhode Island Beautiful detailing the campsites, water resources and protected areas surrounding the proposed power plant site has been shared more than 1,000 times. \u201cThis is wrong and unnecessary! A gorgeous area will be irreparably destroyed and for no reason. Please keep sharing and saying NO!\u201d writes Patty Griffin below the post.<\/p>\n

Posts on Clear River Energy Centre\u2019s page<\/a> attract a smattering of – overwhelmingly negative – attention, in contrast. \u201cYour company is not welcome here,\u201d is one of the politer comments, from a Susan Lavallee.<\/p>\n

Defence of the project mainly falls to those with an interest in it.\u00a0Rhode Islanders for Affordable Energy<\/a>, a coalition of trade unions and industry groups supporting the plant, is transparently funded by the developer. \u201cPaid for by Clear River Energy Center, LLC,\u201d says a note at the side of the website.<\/p>\n

Climate change is not the primary driver for either side, but it is what\u00a0elevates this parochial matter\u00a0to international relevance. And both camps claim the moral high ground.<\/p>\n