RENEW Testifies in Favor of Increasing Renewable Energy for Rhode Island

On January 29, 2015, RENEW testified before the Rhode Island House Committee on Corporations in support of extending Rhode Island’s Renewable Energy Standard beyond the current goal of 16 percent by 2019. In calling for 1.5 percent annual increases from 2020 to 2035, RENEW explained how renewable energy development outperforms fossil fuels in two important ways when it comes to driving job growth: 1) renewable energy development is relatively labor intensive, so it creates more jobs per dollar invested than fossil fuel resources; and 2) installing renewable energy facilities uses primarily local workers so investment dollars are kept in locally. A 2014 study conducted by the Brattle Group for the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources and Commerce RI reveals how adding between 164 MW and 1008 MW of renewable energy capacity to Rhode Island between 2015 and 2024 yielded net positive economic and environmental impacts. Economic output will increase between $556 million and $2.3 billion in present value terms.