August 23, 2024 — Newport’s Energy & Environment Commission concluded its three-part series about offshore wind on Aug. 15, with moderator Avery Robertson leading panelists representing Climate Action Rhode Island’s Yes to Wind campaign, the Iron Workers Local 37 union, and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management in a discussion about the ethics and economics of offshore wind development.
Nick Horton, a volunteer with Climate Action Rhode Island, opened his remarks by asking the audience to raise their hands if they considered themselves environmentalists, whether they cared about whales, and if they cared about the health of Rhode Island’s fisheries now and in the future. Most people raised their hands to all three. He then asked the room to raise their hands if they planned on cutting their personal energy usage by 90 percent within the next few years. Nobody raised their hand.
He proceeded to make the point that Rhode Island’s grid is largely dependent upon the fracking of natural gas in other states as its main power source. Horton said he supports the industrial scale development of offshore wind not only because it provides an alternative to modes of fossil fuel production, such as fracking, which negatively impact the environment, but also because the pollution caused by fracking and coal-fired power plants increases cancer rates and other health issues in other communities.