Rhode Island is considering legislation to repeal the state’s two compensation programs for renewable energy.
House Bill 6202 would place a moratorium on net metering contracts, subsidies for heat pumps, and long-term contracts for the purchasing of solar or wind energy. House Bill 6203 would repeal the Renewable Energy Growth Program, which compensates for the development of distributed generation projects under long-term tariffs at fixed prices, paying renewable energy generators cash for their electricity production.
HB 6202 would prohibit any right to renew or enter into any net metering contracts that are regulated by state law. The bill also prohibits the State of Rhode Island from entering into any long-term contracts for the purchasing of solar or wind energy with any energy provider.
Rhode Island’s net-metering program allows customers with eligible renewable energy systems to receive credits on their electricity bills for all power generation up to 125% of the customers’ consumption per billing period. The state’s virtual net-metering program allows a developer to install a utility-scale solar facility and enter into a contract with an offtaker to sell the net-metering credits generated by that installation at a discount compared to the standard per-kilowatt price of electricity sold by Rhode Island Energy.
“The bill would slam the brakes on programs that are paying Rhode Islanders for the energy that they produce and halt the distribution of federal funds to Rhode Islanders who are investing in more efficient and cost-effective home heating technologies,” the Conservation Law Foundation said in its testimony. “Many of our neighbors have already invested in building new solar generation facilities at their own expense, and this bill would implement a moratorium that would pull the rug out from under them. They would be left with stranded assets, with their elected officials sending them the message that we no longer want the energy they were prepared to generate.”
“At the same time, the Office of Energy Resources has secured valuable federal dollars to help Rhode Islanders exchange old oil and propane furnaces and install new, more efficient heat pumps,” the Conservation Law Foundation noted. “Halting the program now would keep those oil furnaces in place and lock in higher energy payments for Rhode Islanders who want to save money and switch to cleaner, more efficient equipment.”
According to Nick Nyobo, the senior legal counsel for Revity Energy, the net metering program has produced about 413 MW of renewable electricity generating 547,119,000 kilowatt hours.
The Renewable Energy Growth program has produced 136.29 MW of renewable electricity since it was enacted.
Rhode Island Energy provided the lone testimony in support of HB 6203, while the remaining testimony was in opposition.
According to Rhode Island Energy, the Renewable Energy Growth Program will cost the typical residential electric customer $5.75 per month this summer or 4% of the total electric bill.
“Blaming renewable for rising energy costs is also misguided, when the volatility of our supply costs is driven in large part by the region’s overreliance on natural gas and other fossil fuels,” Acadia Center said in its testimony. Along with the volatility of global gas markets, Acadia said, “the price of our gas and our electricity can also be impacted by extreme temperatures, supply constraints, and demand at certain times of the day and year.”
Acadia said adding new sources of both small and large clean energy can help diversify the state’s supply and insulate the Northeast from swings in fossil fuel prices.
“Rhode Island leaders can and should take tangible steps to tackle the state’s rising energy burden: pursing oversight of utility spending, introducing support for meaningful participation, and ensuring that our most vulnerable have access to affordable energy,” Acadia said.
The House Committee on Corporations voted to hold the bills for further study. While the practice is not set in stone, Rhode Island’s House of Representatives vote to hold all the bills for “further study” at the start of each committee meeting. Bills then linger in limbo until they die a quiet death or reappear on a committee’s agenda as “scheduled for consideration.” Most bills that are scheduled for consideration are ultimately passed.
Speaking at a press conference following the committee meeting, House Minority Leader Rep. Michael Chippendale (R) said that while they are not climate deniers, “Rhode Island occupies a tiny fraction of this planet’s surface even under the most widely accepted climate models,” he said. “Rhode Island’s contribution to global carbon emissions is so minuscule that achieving net zero would have no measurable impact on global temperatures.”
Since the committee meeting last week, Rep. Chippendale went on radio station WPRO on June 2 to promote the bills, so the legislation does not appear to have died off, though it is still too soon to tell.
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NEM contracts, that helped private parties and residential homeowners reduce their use of utility energy while generating their own has now finally hit the bottom line of public and privately owned Utilities. Combines with LED lighting, Energy Star appliances, usage of electricity per Houshold has gone down and any commodity-based usage tariff is affecting incomes of public utilities. So, to make up the difference, they raise the commodity rate, cut solar and wind incentives through legislation and start charging a flat rate monthly fee to pay for infrastructure fixed costs. Every utility in states where population growth is stagnated or falling, this is the dilemma utilities face when the common perception that they would be selling more electricity and not less as years went by. Electric Vehicles were going to get more revenue for electric companies, but EV sales have fallen way off and the new administration in Washington is cutting back on EV subsidies as well. The Billion Dollars in political contributions from energy companies in 2024 is paying off in Washington DC in 2025 and now in Rhode Island as well.