CONNECTICUT GOV. NED LAMONT dropped out on Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts called it quits on Thursday, and now Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee is pulling his state out of the transportation climate initiate.
According to press reports in Rhode Island, McKee decided to withdraw from the cap-and-invest program for automobile fuels for the same reason as Baker.
“The Transportation and Climate Initiative depends upon the involvement of at least three jurisdictions to go forward as a program,” McKee said in a statement. “Recent events in Connecticut and Massachusetts, however, have made clear that at least for the time being, Rhode Island must explore other options in clean transportation. We must be clear: Rhode Island is on the clock to combat climate change, and we must move forward with a bold initiative to meet net-zero. The Act on Climate law sets mandates, not goals, for the state to reduce greenhouse gases economy-wide. And we will have serious difficulty meeting the new law’s reduction mandates without a strong commitment and plan to reduce emissions from the transportation sector, which contributes nearly 40 percent of carbon emissions in our area.”
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About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
Like Baker, McKee’s statement indicated he intends to use federal and local funds to develop zero-emissions transportation options.
Lamont withdrew from the initiative because the political odds were way too high with gas prices hitting record levels heading into an election year next year.
In December 2020, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were the only states of the original 12 that decided to launch the transportation climate initiative. They agreed to put a price on the carbon contained in vehicle fuels sold within their borders and leverage the revenues gained and the resulting higher price of gasoline to cut transportation emissions 26 percent by 2032.
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