McKee plays the energy card to boost his re-election chances
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
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Tina Munter, Rhode Island policy advocate for Green Energy Consumers Alliance, offered a different summation of the governor’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal on energy bill charges.
“It’s mind-boggling,” Munter said in a recent interview. “Rhode Island’s reliance on natural gas for heating and electricity is what keeps the region in flux with energy prices. The longer we rely on natural gas, the longer we’re stuck in a cycle of seeing [energy] bills spike, seeing ratepayers be confused and shocked and surprised, versus having more stability.”
This logic persuaded lawmakers in 2022 to enact the most ambitious renewable electricity timeline of any state in the nation. The Renewable Energy Standard law, heralded by McKee at the time of its passage, required Rhode Island to gradually transition to entirely renewable energy sources for its electricity needs, reaching 100% by 2033.
Now, McKee wants to push the deadline to 2050, which is the same deadline for the state to achieve net-zero emissions overall under the separate Act on Climate law. The proposed 17-year postponement, with immediate relaxation of existing incremental benchmarks, accounts for more than half of the $1 billion projected savings to Rhode Island ratepayers, cutting nearly $64 million from bills in 2027, and $572 million over the next five years, according to the state Office of Management and Budget.
McKee’s environmental and energy administrators defended the rollback, which mirrors policies set by neighboring states and reflects the hostile energy environment under President Donald Trump.
“At a time when utility bills are already at historic highs and affordability is top concern for Rhode Islanders, President Trump’s actions are raising costs and undermining clean energy production,” Chris Kearns, acting state energy commissioner, said during a Jan. 15 briefing with reporters about McKee’s budget.
Changing winds in Washington have hit Rhode Island hard under the first year of Trump’s second term. Twice, the Trump administration has suspended work on its signature offshore wind project, Revolution Wind; the second federal suspension was lifted by court order on Jan. 12. Repeals of federal electric vehicle tax credits cut $900 million in incentives for Rhode Island motorists, while other key policies governing power emissions and vehicle efficiency standards have been rolled back.
A $49 million state grant under the Biden administration to help low and moderate-income homeowners and renters afford solar panels remains frozen, tied up in litigation. A separate $30 million federal award for home energy efficiency rebates, announced in 2024, is still awaiting final approval from federal regulators to launch, Kearns said.
The cost of going green
Even before the state’s climate change plan was cast into doubt by a Trump presidency, its ambitious “greening” of the local electricity grid was growing pricier.
In 2023, the most recent year available, electricity suppliers, including Rhode Island Energy, spent nearly $60 million to meet the 23% renewable electricity requirement for the year, according to a November 2025 report submitted to state regulators. The cost includes purchasing credits from regional solar, wind and other clean energy projects, which can be substituted for new renewable energy production to meet the mandates. Five years prior, when electricity suppliers only had to meet a 13% clean electricity standard, total program spending was less than $8 million.
The spending is passed on to ratepayers, reflected on the “delivery details” portion of Rhode Island Energy’s monthly billing along with other state mandated fees and energy program costs.
State mandates, fees and policies drive about 25% of monthly energy bills. There are also usage costs, set by third-party suppliers with no room to renegotiate by state administrators nor the utility provider. A separate set of distribution charges is imposed by Rhode Island Energy to help pay for customer service, infrastructure and technology upgrades and emergency outage responses, among other investments. McKee’s appointed, three-member Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over the company’s distribution charges, but the governor himself does not.
Hence, why McKee’s energy affordability plan only touches on the portions of customers’ bills under his control. In addition to revising the renewable energy standard, McKee has proposed a suite of other changes. They include:
- Limiting credits to customers who return renewable energy to the grid through direct or virtual projects (mostly solar) and adding a “grid access fee” for large-scale solar fields to cover the costs associated with development, connection and operations. This change would cut ratepayers’ costs by $35 million a year.
- Capping utility spending (based on ratepayer charges) for energy efficiency rebates and incentives to home and business owners at $75 million a year. There is no cap currently. This would save an estimated $21 million for ratepayers each year.
- Revitalizing a longstanding practice, ended by state utility regulators in 2024, that lets Rhode Island Energy spread out the cost for road repaving over a longer period rather than accounting for the expense in its annual operating budget. This would save $16 million in ratepayer charges each year initially, although it compounds repayment over a longer time period.
- Axing a state performance incentive to Rhode Island Energy meant to encourage long-term renewable energy contracts, saving ratepayers $2.5 million a year.
The collective changes, most of which would take effect in January 2027 if approved by the Rhode Island General Assembly, would save the average residential customer $180 a year, or $15 a month, over the next five years, according to the state budget office.
A short-term fix?
Short-term savings come with long-term consequences, including higher costs, Munter warned.
For example, rolling back the state Renewable Energy Standard will prolong the state’s reliance on a limited, unreliable and expensive natural gas supply. Dethroning Rhode Island as a state leader in climate incentives also means sacrificing its edge in the renewable electricity credit marketplace. Electricity suppliers can purchase credits from renewable energy projects anywhere, and Rhode Island’s ambitious incentives for clean energy production draw buyers from other states, fueling the state economy with money and jobs.
And then there are the unquantifiable health and safety benefits from a shift away from fossil fuels.
“The savings won’t show up on your utility bill, but Rhode Islanders will see environmental and health consequences in their life if, for example, air quality worsens,” Munter said.
Especially with less money available to make the switch to clean energy in their own homes and workplaces under McKee’s proposed cap on state energy efficiency funding.
“It’s a serious concern of mine to cap energy efficiency, and to imply that cutting energy efficiency spending will benefit Rhode Islanders,” said Emily Koo, senior policy advocate and Rhode Island program director for the Acadia Center.
Rhode Island Energy’s $95 million energy efficiency budget for 2026 is already 18% less than the $117 million budget for 2025, and nearly one-third below the annual amount that Rhode Island Energy pledged to spend in a three-year plan submitted in 2023.
Limiting state funding also fails to recognize the long-term savings for ratepayers who winterize windows and doors, upgrade furnaces and thermostats or even switch to high-efficiency electric heat pumps, Koo said. And in her view, the drought of federal funding for energy efficiency investments makes preserving, and boosting, Rhode Island’s rebate program even more important.
Koo also serves as a member of the advisory board to the Rhode Island Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council, a consortium of state agencies charged with developing a plan to meet Rhode Island’s decarbonization mandates under the Act on Climate law. The council’s first comprehensive review of state progress and future projections, unveiled in November, warned the 2050 net-zero emissions mandate is out of reach without “additional ambition” to incentivize a clean energy transition. Its analysis assumed the existing incentives and funding McKee now wants to roll back.
“From my point of view, it would appear that elements of the governor’s budget are inconsistent with the Act on Climate,” said Sen. Sam Zurier, a Providence Democrat and chair of a legislative panel created in 2025 to monitor implementation of the Act on Climate law.
However, Zurier said he wanted to keep an open mind, awaiting more detail on McKee’s budget proposal when the five-member Senate panel meets on Wednesday, Jan. 28. Its agenda includes a presentation from Terry Gray, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management director and head of the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council.
Gray reiterated McKee’s rationale on the energy bill cuts.
“If customers aren’t comfortable with their electric bills, and they’re not comfortable with the stability in their electric bills, they’re not going to transition over to the appliances we need to meet our mandates,” Gray said in an interview directly after the Jan. 15 budget briefing with reporters.
Eye on 2050
Gray said the state’s 2050 decarbonization deadline was “still achievable,” while noting the need for more frequent tweaks to the state’s plan especially under Trump.
“There are so many things up in the air right now, it’s crazy,” Gray said. “In our climate planning over the next three years, we’re going to have to read and react.”
Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO and co-chair of Climate Jobs Rhode Island, suggested it was premature to upend Rhode Island’s clean energy path.
“I think we should give ourselves one more year,” Crowley said. “Hopefully, things will change in Congress and we can get back on track. My concern is that we are going to drop our focus on what we need to do.”
Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee’s office, did not directly address these suggestions or critics when asked for comment.
“The Trump Administration has drastically changed the energy landscape, by taking steps to limit or eliminate available sources of clean energy—thereby driving up costs that are passed onto ratepayers and casting uncertainty on our ability to meet our aggressive climate goals,” DaRocha said in an emailed response Wednesday. “Meanwhile, rising energy costs are driving family budgets to the breaking point; Rhode Islanders need relief now, not later. We remain committed to an affordable energy strategy that still provides a pathway to decarbonization and leverages lower cost, zero-emission resources.”
The blame game
While McKee pointed the finger at Trump, local advocates and lawmakers focused their ire on Rhode Island Energy and its parent company, PPL Corp., contrasting the public company’s multimillion-dollar profits and C-suite executive salaries with ratepayers who struggle to keep the lights on.
A bevy of bills floated in the 2025 legislative session sought customer affordability by capping company profit margins, or creating competition in the form of a state-owned public utility. The measures drew opposition from Rhode Island Energy, and failed to advance out of either chamber.
Sen. Alana DiMario, a Narragansett Democrat, thinks the policy might be worth a fresh look, especially as Rhode Island Energy seeks to raise service charges on gas and electric customers. The company’s application, submitted to state utility regulators a day before Thanksgiving, proposes a two-year set of bill hikes starting in September 2026, adding more than $9 per month to the average residential customer’s electricity bill and more than $440 to annual, average gas bills.
In unveiling the proposed distribution rate hikes, Rhode Island Energy defended the need for $230 million operating revenue to cover inflationary costs and supply chain expenses. The company has been unable to seek a distribution rate increase to offset its service expenses since taking over the state’s gas and electric operations in 2022 as part of the sale agreement with state utility regulators. The moratorium ended in May 2025.
Regulators also required the company to refund customers for deferred income tax hikes associated with the 2022 acquisition. Rhode Island Energy, working with McKee, initially pitched a $149 million, two-year discount plan to honor its 2022 refund commitment, but withdrew the proposal in the fall amid scrutiny over the calculations. The company said previously it plans to file an alternative payout plan this year, but has not submitted anything as of Wednesday.
Michael Dalo, a spokesperson for Rhode Island Energy, pledged to review McKee’s rate cut changes in full detail.
“We remain committed to providing safe, reliable, and affordable energy for our customers, and will be actively engaged in the upcoming discussions to help shape solutions that benefit Rhode Islanders,” Dalo said in an emailed response on Jan. 15.
The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission declined to comment on the governor’s energy relief package.
Cleaner alternatives
Energy advocates have their own suggestions for soothing the pain of rising energy bills without putting clean energy plans at risk. They include:
- Discounting winter electric rates for ratepayers that switch to electric heat pumps, modeled after a program in Massachusetts that took effect this winter which is projected to generate a median savings of $687 for customers with heat pumps, and $361 in median savings for those without.
- Eliminating the ratepayer-funded program offering free gas line extensions to homeowners who live within a limited distance of an existing line.
- Requiring or incentivizing utility companies to employ new technology (hardware and software) that increase capacity and efficiency of the regional electric grid, cutting costs for utility companies and their ratepayers.
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Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
