Earth Day provides an opportunity to reflect on environmental and sustainability topics, including recently proposed legislation in the Rhode Island General Assembly including efforts to enshrine a right to a clean and healthy environment in the state constitution, reform of the Coastal Resources Management Council, and to expand renewable energy development on brownfields or other developed sites.
Green Amendment to the R.I. Constitution
A recently proposed change to the Rhode Island Constitution would create a Green Amendment and declare that all Rhode Islanders “have an inherent, inalienable, indefeasible, and self-executing right to clean air, clean water, healthy and uncontaminated soil, a life-supporting climate, and the preservation of the environment’s natural, scenic, and recreational values.”[1] The amendment would further provide that the state would serve as trustee of the natural resources of Rhode Island and would “conserve, protect, and maintain” the resources for the benefit of all Rhode Islanders and “shall protect these rights and Rhode Island’s natural resources equitably for all people.”[2]
The proposed amendment is currently in the House State Government & Elections Committee which recently recommended that the measure be held for further study. Rhode Island is the sixteenth state to propose a green amendment this legislative cycle and could be the fourth state to adopt a green amendment after Montana, Pennsylvania, and New York.
In states that have enacted Green Amendments, plaintiffs have brought constitutional climate challenges with varying degrees of success.[3] In Montana, a group of youths successfully sued the state arguing that the state’s environmental review law violated their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment because the law limited how greenhouse gas emissions were analyzed during environmental reviews.[4] In New York, a plaintiff group sought to challenge the state of New York, New York City, and the operator of a major landfill serving New York City, claiming that odors and emissions from the landfill violate their environmental rights under New York’s Green Amendment.[5] The claims against the landfill operator and New York City were dismissed, but the court found that New York’s Green Amendment required the state to do more to protect the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to clean air and a healthful environment.[6]
If adopted, a Green Amendment in Rhode Island could similarly bring additional responsibility for the state to protect the Ocean State’s natural resources and citizens’ rights to a clean and healthy environment and present additional ways for Rhode Islanders to protect environmental interests.
Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) Reforms
The perennial discussion about CRMC reform continues in the current General Assembly with a renewed proposal to transform CRMC from its current structure as a politically appointed, quasi-governmental body into an administrative department.[7] This year’s proposal is largely a repeat of legislation introduced in prior years and once again seeks to transform the CRMC into the Department of Coastal Resources.
The proposed legislation would replace the current politically appointed volunteer council with the Department and its director, who would be responsible for decisions formerly in the domain of the CRMC.[8] To assist the director, the legislation calls for a community advisory committee to be appointed by the governor and consist of ten members who “shall be knowledgeable in coastal law, costal policy or coastal ecology.”[9] The legislation also calls for the hiring of a staff attorney to support the Department of Coastal Resources and appointment of at least one attorney to serve as a hearing officer.[10]
A competing reform bill was also introduced before the General Assembly and would see that the CRMC maintain its current form but reduce the size of council from ten to seven members and appoint the Attorney General to the council.[11] This proposal would also require that all appointees possess certain qualifications in environmental matters and that at least one member be an engineer, one be a coastal biologist, and one be a representative of an environmental organization.[12]
Both CRMC reform proposals remain in committee for further study at this time.
Renewable Energy Expansion
Proposed changes to Rhode Island’s net metering program would exempt certain renewable energy developments from the state’s 275 MW aggregate cap.[13] Currently, Rhode Island limits the aggregate capacity of renewable energy net metering ground mounted systems to 275 MW.[14] The proposed legislation would exempt renewable energy systems installed on preferred sites, such as brownfields, parking lots, and rooftops, or installed on raised structures that allow multi-use of the underlying land, such as for parking, recreational, or agricultural use, from the cap. The legislation could expand the availability of net-metering capacity to enable more renewable energy systems and remains in committee for further study.
[1] S.R. 327, 2025 Jan. Sess. (R.I. 2025).
[2] Id.
[3] See Held v. State, 560 P.3d 1235, 1241 (Mont. 2024); Fresh Air for the Eastside, Inc. v. State, No. E2022000699, 2022 WL 18141022, at *10 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Dec. 20, 2022).
[4] Held, 560 P.3d at 1260-61.
[5] Fresh Air for the Eastside, at *10.
[6] Id.
[7] H.R. 5706, 2025 Jan. Sess. (R.I. 2025).
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] H.R. 6126, 2025 Jan. Sess. (R.I. 2025).
[12] Id.
[13] H.R. 6085, 2025 Jan. Sess. (R.I. 2025).
[14] § 39-26.4-3(a)(1).
