Public Backs Package of Bills That Would Tackle Pollution, Food Insecurity, Affordable Housing
By CAITLIN FAULDS and BRIAN P. D. HANNON/ecoRI News staff
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| The Rescue Rhode Island Act addresses many of the issues young advocates of the Green New Deal support, including clean air and water. (ecoRI News) |
Callers to a recent House committee hearing on a trio of bills addressing industrial pollution, affordable housing and food insecurity ranged from a mother who described her child’s illness from lead exposure to teenagers fearful for their environmental and economic futures.
The
House Finance Committee
convened May 25 to take public testimony on the Green Justice Zone Act, the
Housing Construction Act and the Food Security and Agricultural Jobs Act,
collectively known as the Rescue Rhode Island Act.
Testimony
offered by phone because of ongoing COVID-19 restrictions lasted more than
three hours despite preregistered residents and advocates having only 2 minutes
each for comments. Callers overwhelmingly supported the bills as means to
address a variety of concerns, including racial injustice, employment, utility
costs, local farming, the climate and health repercussions of industrial waste.
The
bills were filed separately but received a joint hearing from the committee
that will decide whether to send them to the full House for consideration.
Committee members voted at the outset of the hearing to hold the bills for
further study, which is standard procedure for new legislation and isn’t an
indication of likely success or failure.
Green Justice Zone Act
Rep. David Morales, D-Providence, said he filed the legislation (H5674) to fight pollution, protect public health and move the economy toward renewable energy and climate-resilient industries.
Morales
said his bill would establish a green-justice zone in the Port of Providence
area, including the city’s South Side and Washington Park neighborhoods, which
he said “unfortunately are home to some of the most polluted communities in the
entire state and the entire country.”
The
legislation would require new or preexisting industrial facilities to obtain
licenses to operate in the zone after Dec. 1, 2022. Licenses would be overseen
by a community board of six residents living within the zone. Businesses banned
from obtaining licenses as a result of air and water pollution inherent to
their operations would include petroleum refineries, chemical manufacturing
plants, scrap metal yards, landfills and fossil-fuel storage sites, Morales
said.
“Failure
to receive these licenses would result in significant fines for the polluting
industries that have caused so much damage to our communities in the port,” he
said. “Therefore, the community whose heath and livelihood has been impacted
for so long would finally have an opportunity to reimagine and influence the
port and the role that it plays in our state and our city.”
The
proposed resident board would coordinate with neighbors about investing state
funding in environmental remediation projects such as lead pipe replacement,
air ventilation system upgrades and rooftop solar panel installations.
The
bill would also establish a “just transition” program within the state
Department of Labor and Training offering free job training and apprenticeships
to workers from facilities closed by the zone’s licensing restrictions.
Participants would be eligible for two years of salary equal to their previous
positions, Morales said.
“Ultimately,
this program would prepare workers who were previously engaged in a polluting
industry an opportunity to obtain a new, sustainable job in the growing
industries of clean energy, sustainable infrastructure and climate resiliency,”
Morales said.
He
said financing sources for the bill could include federal grants and relief
funding, low-interest general obligation bonds, reduction of current budget
appropriations for the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation and prioritization of
environmental justice initiatives yielding tax revenue, including cannabis
legalization and repeal of state tax cuts for wealthy residents passed in 2006.
Committee
member Rep. George Nardone, R-Coventry, questioned Morales about the amount of
revenue generated for Providence by businesses susceptible to closures or
fines, which the bill stipulates could be as high as $1 million a week. Nardone
noted officials in the state’s largest city are likely concerned about what
could be “a pretty big impact on their budget.”
“I
know scrap metal is like a $1.5 billion industry in the state of Rhode Island,”
Nardone said.
“I
would argue you can’t put a price on the public health of the communities that
are most impacted,” said Morales, who noted Mayor Jorge Elorza and other
Providence officials are in discussions with affected businesses.
Housing
Construction Act
The legislation (H6074) would create
new energy-efficient, affordable housing units and generate renewable energy
and construction jobs in a state currently facing a “mass housing crisis”
coupled with COVID-19 and climate-change challenges, according to bill sponsor
Rep. Brianna Henries, D-East Providence.
Since
2015, median home prices in Rhode Island have increased 75 percent, according
to Henries. One in three Rhode Islanders spends more than 30 percent of their
gross income on housing as the state faces a deficit of 22,000 low-income
homes, she said.
“I
believe that affordable housing is a right, plain and simple,” Henries said,
adding that funding for the bill could be found in federal COVID-19 relief
money provided to the state, which totals more than $1 billion.
“Housing
is the number one issue that brings people into my organization right now,”
said Pawtucket resident Shelby Mack, who works in social services and called in
to support the bill. “It is the number one destabilizing force for vulnerable
families in Rhode Island.”
The
bill would create thousands of new affordable housing units for low- and
middle-income families across the state. It would also bring Rhode Island
closer to the carbon emissions and sustainability goals laid out in the Act on Climate bill
passed in April, Henries said.
Emissions
from “inefficient housing stock” make up 19 percent of the state’s
greenhouse-gas emissions, according to Henries. To lower emissions, multifamily
buildings would be built to meet Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) Gold ratings. Rooftops would be designed
for maximum sunlight exposure and equipped with high-capacity rooftop
photovoltaic solar panels.
Solar
panels would be retrofitted onto existing housing units, with priority given to
lower-income households. Large residential buildings would also face stricter
efficiency requirements to be implemented by September 2023.
Henries
said affordable housing poses an additional “economic opportunity” to create
new jobs in renewable energy, and bring thousands of workers back into a
housing construction industry depleted by the pandemic.
A
housing jobs department, established by the bill as part of the Department of
Administration, would oversee construction, sustainability measures and worker
rights. It would also provide money to train workers and build partnerships
with youth programs, according to the bill.
“This
act addresses the multitude of crises our state faces,” Henries said.
Rhode
Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty director David Veliz
agreed, calling the bill a “win-win concept” that would tackle housing
insecurity, unemployment and climate change in one fell swoop.
“We
have a moral obligation to address inequality in our society,” Veliz testified.
“We cannot wait any longer while people struggle to make basic needs.”
Food
Security and Agricultural Jobs Act
The legislation (H5955) would take a
ground-up approach to the state’s food insecurity crisis – a crisis that,
according to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, affects one in four
households.
The
bill, introduced by Rep. Leonela Felix, D-Pawtucket, would increase access to
fresh produce while increasing local growing capacity and sustainable
agricultural jobs. Farming in Rhode Island has dropped dramatically in the past
century, according to the bill.
Today,
about 90 percent of food consumed in New England
is grown outside the region. The bill would “unhook” Rhode Island from global
trends, Felix said.
The
bill would establish a trifecta of programs, identified as separate acts within
the bill, to be overseen by a new agricultural jobs bureau under the control of
the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s Division of
Agriculture.
Under
the Regenerative Agriculture Program Act, the bureau would incentivize
sustainable farming practices that minimize the use of chemicals, over-tilling
and monoculture farming. It would also support fair wages and health benefits
for workers and establish a grant program for regenerative farmers.
The
Garden Agriculture Act would foster small-scale local food production by
providing grantees with the tools, soil, seeds and instructional guidance
necessary to grow personal organic gardens.
The
Community Agriculture Act would provide $500,000 to $1 million in start-up
funds for cooperative-led community gardens committed to growing high-nutrient,
locally distributed foods.
As
a whole, Felix said the legislation eliminates state dependence on large
agriculture corporations. Those companies “exploit their laborers, degrade the
environment, and produce food with low-quality nutritional value that must be
shipped to Rhode Island through carbon-intensive supply chains,” according to
the act.
“This
is my favorite bill of the year,” Providence resident Angel Lopez testified.
“The language is simple and direct, and even the money seems right.”
“This
Agricultural Jobs Act would bring people together,” Alexandria Gonzalez said.
“It would give people a shot at life.”
The
proposed programs are estimated to cost $75 million annually, or less than 1
percent of the state’s annual budget. Funding could be acquired through
increased taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of residents or the legalization of
marijuana, which could generate $177 million and $41 million, respectively,
Felix said.
Thomas
Landry, a health-care clinician and educator who works in Woonsocket public
schools, said the Food Security and Agricultural Jobs Act could turn the tables
for students in the state’s urban core who have been impacted by food deserts
and an inability to access fresh produce.
“Passage
of this bill is essential to support Rhode Island families and the environment
in which we live,” Landry said.
John
Lee told the committee he comes from a low-income household where healthy food
was “rarely available.” He was recently diagnosed as prediabetic.
“We
need the Rescue Rhode Island Act to ensure that all people have access to
nutritious locally produced food, regardless of their economic standing,” he
said.
Alan
McLeod pressed committee members to support the three bills to address the
“real issues” facing Rhode Island’s most disenfranchised people.
“If
you do not pass it now people will continue to be food insecure, to go without
housing and to breath polluted air and drink polluted water,” he said. “This is
your chance to act, and if you don’t, nothing changes.”
