Springtime for Hitler, and the CCA

Are you visiting here because you have seen the brilliant and talented fiction of John Goodman and Michael Chambers? Are you curious about how this website, which the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee has no influence over (despite continuing claims by Goodman and Chambers to the contrary), compares the CCA to the “final solution”?

For you, prospective regular reader, here are some resources so you can judge for yourself instead of blindly accepting what others write. We just ask that you share this with others who may be gullible enough to accept what Goodman and Chambers write, at face value.

DeSantis and Abbott revive racist stunt

Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott pull from segregationists’ playbook with their anti-immigration stunts

Greta de Jong, University of Nevada, Reno

An undocumented immigrant from Venezuela kisses the forehead of
another immigrant on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. 
Dominic Chavez for The Washington Post via Getty Images

As a historian of racism and white supremacy in the United States, I’ve become accustomed to callous actions like those of Republican governors who organized transportation for Latin American migrants to states run by their political opponents.

Governors Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida are following the playbook of segregationists who provided one-way bus tickets to Northern cities for Black Southerners in the 1960s. 

At that time, the fight for racial equality was attracting national attention and support from many white Americans, inspiring some to join interracial Freedom Rides organized by civil rights groups to challenge segregation on interstate bus lines.

Then, as now, the message Southern racists aimed to send with their “reverse freedom rides” was, “Here, you love them so much, you take care of them.”

But these acts were more than just political stunts designed to embarrass Northern political leaders who sympathized with the civil rights movement. They were part of a broader effort by white supremacists to remove Black Americans from their communities and avoid dealing with the social consequences of centuries of racial discrimination.

Cats among five major wins from Rhode Island’s 2025 legislative session

Rhode Island cats celebrate new ban on de-clawing

By Nancy Lavin and Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Photo by Will Collette

The race to the legislative finish line this year was every bit as drama-filled and frenzied as expected. Restrictions on assault weapons got top billing, including on the eight-and-a-half hour marathon that marked the final day of the session, but there was plenty more to crow about and criticize during the jam-packed final weeks.

Here are five wins you might have missed from the 2025 Rhode Island General Assembly. Stay tuned for the losses, coming Friday.

1. Shekarchi zones in on housing

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi succeeded in his push to boost housing production in Rhode Island for a third consecutive year, with 10 of the 12 bills of his legislative package clearing the Senate in the final days of the session. (All 12 had already secured approval in the lower chamber.)

That includes two bills sponsored by Shekarchi: one to expand electronic permitting and another to amend the state’s building code by centralizing the responsibilities of various officials, commissions, and boards involved in building and fire code permitting.

Other bills passed include measures to allow townhouses wherever duplexes are permitted, require mixed-use zoning in every community, and promote the conversion of vacant or underused commercial buildings into housing.

“Rhode Island’s housing crisis was decades in the making and is taking a sustained effort, over the course of years, to address,” Shekarchi said in a statement Monday.  “I am so appreciative of all of the partners who work with me to address our housing shortage, and this progress is the result of our collaborative efforts.”

Legislation that would have allowed development of vacant state-owned land did not make it across the finish line. Shekarchi described the bill as in need of some “fine-tuning,” pledging to work with the Senate on it again next year.  

Also left hanging by the Senate was legislation that would have eased local restrictions on subdividing large parcels of land, despite having passed in the House on May 15. However, Shekarchi noted that elements of the stalled bill were addressed in one of the successful 10 bills, which sought to eliminate unnecessary red tape and delays in local land subdivision more broadly.

Senate President Valarie Lawson said while there were concerns with the bill, she intends to continue to work with Shekarchi and other lawmakers to encourage further housing development.

2. All rise for AG Neronha

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s skilled litigation style persuaded lawmakers to his side on a host of policy changes and added funding for his office for new hires.

Neronha initially sought 13 more staffers for his office, asking for $1.7 million to fund the hires in his fiscal 2026 budget request to Gov. Dan McKee. McKee’s proposed spending plan did not offer any of the money, or additional employees.

Neronha subsequently revised his request, asking lawmakers in the House Committee on Finance for four, rather than 13, hires, funded by settlements his office had won for the states. Lawmakers included an $848,000 allocation of state settlement money for the extra AG staffers in the final fiscal 2026 budget.

Neronha thanked lawmakers for funding the hires in a statement Tuesday.

“The people of my Office show up to work every day with one goal: improve the lives of Rhode Islanders,” Neronha said. “These four additional attorneys will share in that goal, and deliver for the residents of our state.”

Neronha scored wins on several policy changes, too, including a change to state procurement to ban “bid-rigging” by public officials. The Neronha-backed legislation taking aim at McKee’s involvement in “steering” a state education contract to the ILO Group in 2021, passed unanimously in the Senate on the final night of the session, having already secured approval by a strong majority of the House. 

Lawmakers also signed on to versions of some of Neronha’s proposed remedies for the health care crisis, such as using Medicare reimbursement rates as the standard by which to hike corresponding Medicaid payments to primary care providers, and doing away with cumbersome and time-consuming pre-authorization requirements for primary care providers.

Finally, the AG’s office staved off an eleventh hour challenge by House Republicans to his authority over state settlements. GOP lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted during the House budget vote on June 17 to siphon $11 million from the AG’s fiscal 2026 funding as a quid pro quo for what they argued was an unconstitutional overstep of his authority. Neronha had already set in motion a plan to spend the $11 million state settlement from the Route 6/10 contamination lawsuit on pediatric dental care in Providence. 

Speaking to reporters after the June 17 House budget vote, Shekarchi affirmed Neronha’s authority over the state settlement funds.

“If this particular settlement was unfair, the solution is to appeal that,” Shekarchi said. “What we’re doing with the money is helping underprivileged children with health care and dental care is a good thing and I will never be against that.”

3. Republicans at the ready for 2026

RI Republicans outraged at infringement
of this guy's 2nd Amendment rights

The most high-profile victory of the session belongs to those who supported a state ban on assault-style weapons — even if the final legislation did not go as far as some had hoped. 

But state Republicans wasted little time turning “L” on what they say is a matter of Constitutional rights into a potential win for the party and its candidates in the 2026 election cycle.

GOP Chairman Joe Powers initiated the call to action Friday night, declaring it was actively recruiting candidates to challenge the “anti-Constitution, anti-liberty legislators” who voted to limit assault-style weapons in the state.

“We now have a clear, targeted list of every legislator who voted to betray their oath — and their time is running out,” Powers said in a statement. “To every Rhode Islander who still believes in the Constitution — we’re not going to fix this by posting memes or yelling at the TV. We fix it by running for office, knocking doors, and taking back this state seat by seat.”

His call to action has already been met with a flurry of responses — a few dozen potential candidates have reached out to the Republican Party in just the last four days, Powers said Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz of North Smithfield debuted a new “Keeping the Spirit of 1776 Alive” fundraising campaign Tuesday morning, seeking support and donations to retain and boost the Republican’s 14-person presence on Smith Hill.

It’s no secret that state and local Republican party committees have struggled to recruit candidates for state and local office, diminishing their voice in a solidly blue state. Could the contested ban on assault weapons sales change the tides in their favor?

‘Maddening’ Proof Plastics Industry Knew Recycling Was False Solution in 1974, New Document Shows

They knew plastics recycling was a sham from the start

By Rebecca John

This work was supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism

With international treaty negotiations aimed at addressing the plastic pollution crisis resuming in Switzerland this week, a new document reveals that one of the world’s largest plastic producers, DuPont, acknowledged as early as 1974 that recycling its plastic products was not possible. 

This new discovery also comes against the backdrop of two pending lawsuits alleging that U.S. plastic producers have deceived the public about the feasibility of recycling since the 1980s.

For decades, the plastics industry has publicly advocated recycling as a strategy for managing plastic waste. But the document, a letter written in May 1974 by Charles Brelsford McCoy, a president and board chairman of DuPont, represents the earliest evidence to date of a top-level industry insider admitting that many commonly used plastic products cannot be recycled due to their complex chemical structures.

The letter contains DuPont’s response to an invitation asking the company to join a pilot recycling scheme in honor of the U.S.’s 1976 bicentennial celebrations. DuPont refused. The reason: recycling DuPont’s plastic products was simply “not feasible.”

Found by DeSmog, the correspondence proves that by the early 1970s the plastic industry’s knowledge regarding the limitations of recycling existed at the highest level, not only in the lab but also the C-suite. 

The discovery also casts new light on the plastic industry’s decades-long promotion of recycling as a viable solution to the global plastic waste crisis. 

One person can supervise 'swarm' of 100 unmanned autonomous vehicles

And how is this a good thing?

Oregon State University

Research involving Oregon State University has shown that a "swarm" of more than 100 autonomous ground and aerial robots can be supervised by one person without subjecting the individual to an undue workload.

The findings represent a big step toward efficiently and economically using swarms in a range of roles from wildland firefighting to package delivery to disaster response in urban environments.

"We don't see a lot of delivery drones yet in the United States, but there are companies that have been deploying them in other countries," said Julie A. Adams of the OSU College of Engineering.

Shellfishermen, DEM officials at odds over increasing nitrogen discharges in bay to feed quahogs

Can we save quahogs by releasing MORE wastewater?

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Where have the quahogs gone? 

Since last September, a joint legislative study commission has been trying to answer that question and find solutions to ensure Rhode Island’s official state shell doesn’t completely disappear from Narragansett Bay.

At its peak in 1959, nearly 5 million pounds of quahogs were harvested from Rhode Island waters, according to a March 2024 report by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM). Over the past three years, that number was less than 500,000 pounds.

“The findings and recommendations that are going to come from this commission are going to steer us on that path where we are going to replenish that bay,” Co-Chair Rep. Joe Solomon, a Warwick Democrat, said during the commission’s meeting Tuesday.

But department officials and the Rhode Island Shellfisherman’s Association are at odds over recommendations to achieve a final long-term solution to bring back the population of the iconic hard-shelled clam. 

Shellfishermen want the state to permit additional nitrogen discharges from wastewater treatment facilities during the winter. Jim Boyd, one of four shellfishermen who serve on the commission, said doing so would help fertilize more phytoplankton that feed quahogs.

About one-third of the food Americans buy is wasted

It hurts the climate and consumers’ wallets

Brian E. Roe, The Ohio State University

Wasted food – and land, labor, chemicals, water and energy. ATU Images via Getty Images

You saw it at Thanksgiving, and you’ll likely see it at your next holiday feast: piles of unwanted food – unfinished second helpings, underwhelming kitchen experiments and the like – all dressed up with no place to go, except the back of the refrigerator. With luck, hungry relatives will discover some of it before the inevitable green mold renders it inedible.

U.S. consumers waste a lot of food year-round – about one-third of all purchased food. That’s equivalent to 1,250 calories per person per day, or US$1,500 worth of groceries for a four-person household each year, an estimate that doesn’t include recent food price inflation. And when food goes bad, the land, labor, water, chemicals and energy that went into producing, processing, transporting, storing and preparing it are wasted too.

Will far-right crazies turn to violence if Trump doesn’t win?

Sarah Palin Calls for Executing Democratic ‘Cheaters’ On Election Day

By Stephen D Foster Jr 

Sarah Palin agrees with Donald Trump that Democrats will somehow cheat to help Hillary Clinton win on Election Day, and her final solution is to kill them.

In a post-debate rant on Facebook, America’s village idiot wrote that Trump is “wise” for refusing to say whether he will accept the election results on November 8th if Hillary Clinton wins.

During the debate, the Republican nominee said everyone will just have to wait and see because he wants to keep America in “suspense.”

His answer was outrageous and unpatriotic because if Trump chooses to reject the results on Election Day and claim that the contest was rigged, he would not only be causing a Constitutional crisis, his supporters have already threatened to attempt a bloody violent coup and an effort to assassinate Clinton.

But Sarah Palin is okay with this.

New horrors planned by Trump

Shades of Nazi concentration camps 

Robert Reich

According to the Washington Post, the Trump regime plans to renovate industrial warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time.

The plan is for newly arrested detainees to be funneled — let me remind you, with no due process, or independent magistrate or judge checking on whether they are in fact in the United States illegally — into one of seven large-scale warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each, where they would be “staged” for deportation.

The large warehouses would be located close to major logistics hubs in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia and Missouri. Sixteen smaller warehouses would hold up to 1,500 people each.

America’s immigrant detention system is already the largest in the world.

With the $45 billion Congress appropriated for locking up immigrants, the regime has revived dormant prisons, repurposed sections of military bases, and partnered with Republican governors to build immigrant tent encampments in remote regions.

“We need to get better at treating this like a business,” ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons said at a border security conference in April, according to the Arizona Mirror. The administration’s goal, he said, was to deport immigrants as efficiently as Amazon moves packages: “Like Prime, but with human beings.”

The logistical problems of converting warehouses into detention camps are significant. Warehouses are designed for storage and shipping of things, not people. They are often poorly ventilated and without precise temperature controls, and they lack access to the plumbing and sanitation systems needed to support thousands of full-time residents.

Beyond logistics is the dehumanization.

Ninety-three years ago, in March 1933, the Nazis established their first concentration camp in what is now Dachau, Poland. Other camps were soon established in Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen.

Initially, the Nazi’s put into these camps Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and others deemed a threat to the Nazi regime.

After the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to these camps in a mass, large-scale action that targeted them for being Jewish. The systematic mass murder of Jews in camps designed as extermination camps did not begin until late 1941 and early 1942, as part of the “Final Solution.”

Nelson Mandela’s Distinction

In forgiving his enemies, he achieved true greatness.

Nelson Mandela as a young man

By Donald Kaul

The year 2000 marked not merely the end of a century but the end of a millennium, a thousand years of history. The media’s desire to fill empty space with naming “the Person of the Millennium” became all the rage.

George Will, the unfailingly smug conservative columnist, made Thomas Jefferson his top dog of the last millennium.

According to Will, Jefferson was our version of a Renaissance man, renowned as a scientist, architect, writer, politician, and political thinker. It was he, as much as anyone, who articulated the ideals of his country, awakening minds throughout the world to the possibilities of freedom and equality.

Jefferson’s halo has lost a little of its glitter in the succeeding years, what with the Sally Hemmings story and all. Even back then, I didn’t consider it a good choice. I said (silently) “Gee George, you’d think with 1,000 years to choose from you could have picked someone who didn’t own slaves.”

Talks resume to end Butler Hospital strike

Butler Hospital strikers put their time to good use

Steve Ahlquist

Butler Hospital healthcare workers say being on strike has not dulled their need to give back to the community. Over the last few weeks, Butler caregivers have donated over 1,400 volunteer hours at food pantries, soup kitchens, community gardens, and shoreline clean-ups. In addition, Butler workers have responded to a dangerous blood shortage across the state. 

On July 21, the Rhode Island Blood Center (RIBC) declared a blood emergency as the state’s blood supply dropped below a two-day inventory, far below the required seven-day supply to meet hospital and patient needs. In response, so many caregivers have stepped up that the Blood Center set up a sponsor code on behalf of the union to participate and donate.

"We’re on day 83 of our unfair labor practice lockout - about 12 weeks - the longest lockout/strike in hospital history in this state,” said Ben Dagnan, a mental health worker at Butler Hospital for 23 years. “To give you an update about where things stand, from our perspective: For those who haven’t heard, the hospital gave us their last, best, and final offer a couple of weeks ago, and last week, the membership voted overwhelmingly - 98% of strikers - to reject that last, best, and final offer. We voted to reject because there was some movement, but it still left our lowest-paid workers behind.

“Management says that $18 an hour is enough to survive in this state, but we all know that is not true or good enough.”

The contract Butler Hospital’s parent company, Care New England, offered did not include dietary, housekeeping, or medical records workers. “We have to make sure that everybody gets lifted up, and we go back to work when everybody is lifted up,” said Dagnan.

I asked about the status of contract talks:

“Interestingly enough," said Dagnan, “on Friday, we heard that the hospital was not interested in returning to the table, and then, yesterday, we found out they are. We’re looking forward to meeting with them tomorrow. We’re hoping that Mary Maran [President and COO of Butler Hospital] and Michael Wagner [Care New England CEO] will pay a visit. We haven’t seen them at the bargaining table once in this whole process. They’re welcome to come, and we hope to get something done. We’ve been very clear on what we’re looking for, so we’re ready to get back to the table and get a solution so we can get back to work. That’s what we want to do.”

The Publics Radio health reporter Lynn Arditi reported today that talks have indeed resumed supervised by a federal mediator. Arditi reports that even though the 700 union members voted down Butler management’s July 11 “final offer,” the union and management continued to have “off-the-books” meetings aimed at breaking the impasse.   - Will Collette

CRMC Gives New Life to Proposal to Expand Aquaculture Farm on Potter Pond.

Also hires new deputy director after political delays

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

A proposal to add 3 acres of aquaculture farms to South Kingstown’s Potter Pond gained a new lease on life this week when coastal regulators voted to send a modified version of the project back to agency staff for further study.

The Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), which regulates aquaculture and other developments found along Rhode Island’s coastline and state waters, was expected to make a final decision on the proposal Jan. 24, but council members instead opted to seek a compromise solution for the project by a 6-2 vote.

Jerry Sahagian, a prominent developer who has been on the council since the 2000s, proposed reducing the size of the project by 39%, trimming the farm’s footprint in Segar Cove from 130,000 to 80,000 square feet, or just under 2 acres in size. Sahagian also suggested replacing the floating gear for the farm with a different kind of aquaculture gear.

Sahagian noted agency staff recommended approval of the project at 3 acres in size, but acknowledged the concerns of community members who use the cove for recreation.

“This will add an additional 50 feet of buffer which I thought would address the safety issues for water skiers,” he said.

But not all council members agreed the panel had the power to modify the application as was proposed. Catherine Robinson Hall, a former Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management lawyer and coastal policies professor who was appointed to the council last year, questioned whether the panel was being transparent and fulfilling public notice requirements by making a major last-minute change to the project.

“It’s not a flat landscape, we’re not changing the contours of this desk,” said Robinson Hall. “We’re talking about changing the seabed, a very complex landscape. It’s not something we’re qualified to do as a council, it’s something only [agency] staff can do.”

It’s the latest development in a five-year tug-of-war between applicant Perry Raso, who owns Matunuck Oyster Bar and is seeking to expand his Rhode Island aquaculture operations, and local residents concerned about the impact the project may have on summer activities.

CRMC formed a special four-person subcommittee to study the project, the Perry Raso Subcommittee, which, after dozens of hours of public hearings, ultimately recommended the council reject the project in a November 2021 meeting. Subcommittee members expressed repeated concerns over the safety from conflicted uses in the cove.

The proposed farm would have three sections of 12 rows of scallop gear, with another 12 rows devoted to oyster farming. Raso already has aquaculture farms elsewhere in Potter Pond, and approval of the new farm would bring his total acres to 9.9, across 3% of the surface area of the pond. CRMC regulations limit aquaculture development from occupying more than 5% of the surface area of any waterbody.

CRMC staff reportedly received 149 objections regarding the project, noting that 79 letters came from out-of-state residents. The objections ranged from noise to recreational fishing impacts, to visual impacts to beach access.

“Segar Cove in Potter Pond has recreational activities. Mr. Raso has observed that they are limited,” wrote CRMC aquaculture coordinator David Beutel in his staff recommendation. “Any aquaculture project in Segar Cove will affect the recreational activities. Some of these activities may occur on the site and others adjacent to the site. Will those activities be prohibited in Potter Pond if this site is approved? No, those activities will still occur in Potter Pond.”

Two members of the Perry Raso Subcommittee, Donald Gomez and Patricia Reynolds, voted to delay the council’s final decision and send the application back to CRMC staff for additional study and a future report.

Both council members indicated they were against the project based on the safety concerns unearthed during the subcommittee’s hearings.

Gomez said the council needed more information from agency staff on any proposed changes to the project’s size or gear.

“It’s still a slippery slope,” Gomez said. “If there’s an exchange [of gear], staff need to look at it.”

CRMC Gets New Deputy Director After Repeated Delays

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

After months of delays, the state Coastal Resources Management Council finally has a new deputy director.

Laura Miguel was picked earlier this month to replace James Boyd, who retired last June after 22 years, for the No. 2 spot at the agency. Miguel has more than 30 years of experience at CRMC, and previously led its enforcement division.

The Rhode Island Department of Administration (DOA) had placed a hold on all personnel action requests from CRMC last August, according to records obtained by ecoRI News last fall. The hold included three other unfilled jobs within the agency: a new coastal policy analyst; a marine infrastructure coordinator; and a hearing officer to adjudicate contested matters before the CRMC.

Coastal Management Council Delays Final Vote on Revolution Wind to May 9

A yes vote by CRMC would be essential to permitting the offshore wind project

By Mary Lhowe / ecoRI News contributor

The Revolution Wind facility is proposed for federal waters off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. (BOEM)

Mindful of concessions and mitigation actions promised by the developers of the proposed Revolution Wind project, staff of the Coastal Resources Management Council have recommended the council vote yes on the project, thereby declaring that it conforms with the state’s coastal management plan.

But after hearing four hours of arguments from fishermen and the public at its April 25 meeting and with several people still waiting to comment at 10 p.m., the CRMC board took no vote, continuing the matter to its May 9 meeting.

A yes vote, declaring that the project is consistent with the state’s Ocean Special Area Management Plan, would be essential to permitting the wind facility, which still is awaiting final approval on the federal level from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

Is Ben Carson nuts, or just a pathological liar?

Lying Liar Ben Carson: I Was Named ‘Most Honest’ Student In My Nonexistent Yale Class

By Shannon Barber

For more cartoons by Mike Luckovich, CLICK HERE

Ben Carson is not having a good week. First, stories about his past, particularly those told in his book Gifted Hands, have been all but debunked — including the ultimate lie about his supposed offer of a full scholarship to West Point, as well the apparently tall tale about his supposedly violent past.

In short, it seems that all of the famously inspirational stories about the boy from the ‘hood turned brilliant neurosurgeon may be complete fabrications.

Well, another story from Carson’s background is making headlines, and it is just as sketchy as the others that are unraveling before our very eyes.

McKee unveils 6 picks for revamped CRMC.

Critics are underwhelmed.

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Three lawyers, two former state lawmakers and an entrepreneur whose business ventures include a word game app and organic salad dressings are Gov. Dan McKee’s picks for the reshaped Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council.

The six nominees, all men, are slated for initial confirmation hearings before the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture Wednesday — nearly three months after the March 1 deadline for new appointees to join the volunteer council. 

McKee’s office did not respond to requests for comment Monday on the delay or on his choices of candidates. Copies of their resumes or applications were also not immediately available, nor was the total number of applications received.

McKee’s recommendation letters, submitted to the Rhode Island Senate on May 14, do not offer any details about the candidates besides their names, and, when applicable, their professional qualifications.

Requiring the volunteer panel members to have relevant work experience was a central part of the reform effort approved by state lawmakers on the final day of the 2025 legislative session. The law reduced the size of the council from 10 to seven people to fix the problem of recurring vacancies that force meetings to be canceled due to lack of quorum. 

Revolution Wind begins delivering electricity to Rhode Island and the regional grid

We’ve got the power 

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Rhode Island’s electric grid now includes some power from its first utility-scale offshore wind project, Revolution Wind, project developers announced Friday night.

The initial power delivery is not the final achievement: The 65-turbine project is 93% complete and not expected to hit its full 704-megawatt nameplate capacity until the second half of the year. However, the initial test of connection to the region’s electric grid marks an important benchmark, especially after two attempts by the Trump administration to block the project’s completion.

The initial power delivery appears on schedule with the prior timeline, despite two separate pauses forced by the Trump administration. The project was first put on hold in August 2025, with federal energy regulators unexpectedly demanding a review for national security concerns, despite having already completed a comprehensive review of project impacts nearly two years earlier. The stop work order was overturned by a federal judge in D.C. in September in response to one of two lawsuits filed by developers and state attorneys general.

A Gust of Nuclear-Powered Hot Air

As prospects for building new reactors grow dimmer, the industry is posing as a climate solution.

By Emily Schwartz Greco and William A. Collins

Have you heard how nuclear power is a low-carbon solution that could ratchet down climate change? Even former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner is touting the industry for its supposed reliability, low-cost, and diminutive carbon footprint.

For years, including when she served as President Barack Obama’s climate czar, Browner shared the widespread green view best summed up by this slogan: No nukes is good nukes.

Do we really need more natural gas?

Invenergy begins its final push to convince the state

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

Take away the bluster and the exaggerated proclamations in the Providence Journal’s latest endorsement of the proposed Burrillville, R.I., fossil-fuel power plant and it takes on one of the central arguments the state Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) must weigh as it begins its final stretch of hearings are scheduled to begin April 26.

The EFSB is required to decide whether the proposed Clear River Energy Center and its near 1,000 megawatts of electrical output are needed to keep the lights on across southern New England for the two-plus decades it will be operating.

The recent Providence Journal editorial clearly argues “yes,” citing the ISO New England report that notes power plants are retiring across New England and a less-polluting energy facility is available to fill the void.

However, it’s not known when those 10 power plants identified as candidates to retire will close. They must give three years' notice before shutting down. If approved by the EFSB, the Clear River Energy Center would be operational in 2021 at the earliest. The state of the regional power-plant market beyond that is mostly speculation.

Opponents of the Burrillville project say proven cleaner technologies are already picking up the slack for retired power plants like the 1,530-megawatt coal-fired Brayton Point power plant in Somerset, Mass., that closed last year.

R.I. has a rising tide of tiny trash on its beaches.

But it still doesn’t have a bottle bill.

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Cigarette butts strewn across the sand and plastic bottles bobbing in the waves are the most obvious targets of frustration about litter on Rhode Island beaches.

But the button-sized plastic and foam pieces less visible to the casual observer might be a more serious problem. More than 14,000 of these 2.5-or-smaller centimeter pieces were collected from state shorelines as part of 2025 volunteer-led efforts through the International Coastal Cleanup, according to a new report from Save the Bay. 

Tiny trash came in second to cigarette butts, which claimed the dubious honor of no. 1 trash item among the 15,561 pounds of trash collected from September to November 2025. “Other plastic waste” was the third most prevalent, followed by food waste, bottle caps and plastic beverage bottles and cans.

RI Energy bills are going up, then down, then up again. What to expect starting Oct. 1.

Could be worse and probably will be next year

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

The seasonal spike in electricity bills won’t burn as big a hole as usual in Rhode Island Energy customers’ wallets.

At least, not this year.

The Oct. 1 start date for the six-month period of higher electricity pricing coincides with the beginning of a separate set of company-issued refunds, mandated under the 2022 sale of the state’s poles, wires and gas lines. 

The net impact for the average residential electric customer is a monthly increase of $16.42 starting Oct. 1.

Starting in January, a second set of customer discounts from the state’s regional gas cap-and-trade program revenue will reduce bills by another $20.45 for each of the first three months of 2027.