As Rhode Island lawmakers weigh how to meet the state’s landmark Act on Climate targets, IBES professors Stephen Porder and J. Timmons Roberts brought their testimonies to the legislature, underscoring both the urgency of emissions cuts and the practicality of solutions already on the table.

“Turn off the tap”: Porder on electrification, affordability, and reliability

Testifying before the Rhode Island House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, Professor of Environment and Society & Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology Stephen Porder outlined a core message: the only durable path to meeting Rhode Island’s climate mandates is to move away from on-site fossil fuel combustion, instead electrifying buildings, vehicles, and industry while rapidly cleaning up the electricity supply.

In his remarks, Porder framed climate change as a long-established scientific problem, understood for well over a century, and emphasized that warming depends on the total greenhouse gases emitted. That’s why, he argued, “the only way to solve this problem is to turn off the tap,” rather than counting on future removal to make up for continued emissions.

Porder also focused on a question that legislators repeatedly face: can decarbonization be done scalably and affordably without sacrificing reliability? He pointed to electrification as a cost-saving strategy over time, highlighting examples from household retrofits (heat pumps, electric hot water heaters, induction stoves) and from electric vehicles, which can reduce both operating costs and emissions even before the grid is fully renewable.

Porder also emphasized that policy design determines whether residents experience the transition as feasible or burdensome. He highlighted two practical levers: 

1. pairing electrification upgrades with renovations or new builds to reduce costs, and
2. streamlining permitting (including for rooftop solar) to speed deployment and lower soft costs.

Roberts on Act on Climate: leadership, feasibility, and the politics of delay

J. Timmons Roberts, Professor of Environment and Society & Sociology and Director of Brown’s Climate and Development Lab, addressed the Special Legislative Commission to Study the Successful Implementation of the Act on Climate with urgency and pragmatism, grounding his testimony in decades of climate research and Rhode Island–specific policy analysis.

Roberts opened by acknowledging lawmakers’ concerns about affordability and grid reliability, emphasizing that energy security and climate action must be pursued together, not in opposition. He also warned that climate change poses escalating risks to Rhode Island, a coastal state with more than 400 miles of shoreline vulnerable to flooding, storm surge, and sea level rise. These threats, he stressed, are present realities already reshaping infrastructure, ecosystems, and communities.

Drawing on modeling work his lab conducted with the Stockholm Environment Institute, Roberts explained that Rhode Island’s climate targets are technically and economically achievable using technologies already available today. His team identified a pathway to reduce emissions by 80 percent by 2040 at an estimated net cost of roughly $1.5 billion annually, a figure that accounted for the deployment of renewable energy, electrification, and efficiency improvements across sectors. Offshore wind, in particular, emerged as a critical resource for Rhode Island due to the region’s exceptional coastal wind potential and limited land for large-scale energy generation.

Roberts emphasized that renewable energy also offers economic advantages. Rhode Island currently spends billions of dollars each year importing fossil fuels from out of state, exporting wealth while remaining exposed to volatile global fuel markets. Transitioning to locally generated renewable energy, he argued, would retain more of those expenditures within the regional economy while stabilizing energy prices over time through long-term fixed contracts. As Roberts put it, the goal is not abrupt replacement, but a managed transition that steadily reduces dependence on fossil fuels while preserving system stability.

Ultimately, Roberts framed Rhode Island’s climate efforts as both a scientific and economic imperative. The Act on Climate, he argued, positions the state as a national leader while protecting residents from escalating climate damages and volatile fuel costs.

Why this matters for Rhode Islanders

Porder and Roberts’s testimonies come as Rhode Island lawmakers scrutinize energy mandates and implementation strategies under the Act on Climate, the landmark law committing the state to deep emissions reductions by mid-century. Together, the professors’ contributions reflect a core goal of IBES’ strategic plan: supporting mechanisms that promote the translation of our research and academic activities into climate, sustainability, and environmental solutions.