She describes her vision of transforming Rhode Island into a national leader in sustainability and resilient-related industries in a new document called the Grow Green Jobs Report, which lays out a vision for Rhode Island’s economy that would closely mirror ideas being implemented in her hometown. Last week, Newport officials testified at the House Commission on Economic Impacts of Flooding and Sea Rise about how the City-by-the-Sea is poised to both suffer and benefit from rising oceans.
“The Rhode Island Senate has identified the green sector of the economy as one that offers great opportunity for both job growth and environmental benefits,” the Grow Green Jobs Report says. “As the Ocean State, our economy and people have experienced the impacts of severe storms, rising sea levels and warming temperatures. We have the workforce and educational assets to build upon – to turn these challenging events into opportunities for a stronger economy and a more resilient state.”
Paiva Weed is leading a round table discussion today at 2pm in the Senate Lounge. “Participants will include the Chambers of Commerce, DEM, Office of Energy Resources, DLT, Resource Recovery, Department of Education, Higher Ed, Build RI, and others from the environmental community and green industries,” said Senate spokesman Greg Pare in an email.
The legislation that accompanies the report is expected to be filed today, Pare said. The policy recommendations in the report give an idea of what the legislation will include:
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And apparently nobody did. I’ve seen articles in the paper. I’ve even tweeted reporters. Nobody’s asking the question, “Is this stadium going to be built on stilts?”
Here’s my mock-up of the location of the stadium cobbled together from the rough info we’ve received, plus an overlay of the flood zone maps.
This map assumes sea level rises and storm surges. It doesn’t have potential hurricane or the 100 year flood levels.
So, here’s the pitch question…
“What are the new Sox owner’s plans to deal with or mitigate flooding during and after construction of a proposed stadium?”
Disclosures: I love baseball. I love Providence. I like the Pawsox. I don’t like public subsidies of businesses that will make millions and return little in the way of revenue and long-term growth/momentum to a city. Oh, and I’m not a GIS mapper…
]]>“It would probably be helpful,” he joked at the end of a 15 minute interview. “But I’m not proposing it.”
Instead, his bill will help organize the actions the state is already taking. “There’s actually a lot happening,” Handy said. “It’s just not very coordinated across state agencies”
The bill would also create a science advisory group to suggest other solutions and set an “aspirational goal” of 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. In the short term, he says, addressing climate change could serve as an economic driver in the Ocean State.
He said technology to address and adapt to sea level rise could be developed here. “Maybe 3M develops a site here to test things and [partners with] the war college and the university,” he said. “Like many times you have no idea what the technology is going to be in five or 10 years but we want to be the place where it is being developed.”
You can listen to our full conversation below. Abel Collins wrote this post about Handy’s bill. And Resilient RI has its own website here.
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