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Speaker 1: Senator Gordon Rodgers, who put out a little video about

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Speaker 1: what he intends to do. Senator Gordon Gordon Rodgers is

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Speaker 1: on the Seacwonk supply hotline. He's also the Senate Minority Whip,

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Speaker 1: a Republican representing Coventry Foster situate in West Greenwich. Good morning,

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Speaker 1: Senator Rogers.

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Speaker 2: Morning Tarror. I'm glad to have you had me on

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Speaker 2: for this discussion. How you're doing this?

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Speaker 1: Yeahs, it is complicated. You know, there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: you know, people are defensive up at the State House, right,

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Speaker 1: they're very defensive. You know. Well, then you can fold

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Speaker 1: in the PUC. But what is your intent with this bill?

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Speaker 2: Well, let's let me first explain what this bill. It's

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Speaker 2: a total appeal on the Act on Climate. So what

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Speaker 2: is the Act on Climate? The Act on Climate Bill

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Speaker 2: was instituted about five years ago. And what it does.

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Speaker 2: It has tentacles in every single form of Rhode Island

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Speaker 2: life that a lot of people don't realize. They're all

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Speaker 2: a little ghols, but everybody feels it. Everybody feels it

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Speaker 2: in the electric bill and the heating bill. But this

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Speaker 2: also includes the building industry with the energy saving mandates.

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Speaker 2: Requiring mandating electric wiring for garages, and you may not

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Speaker 2: even own electric car. I've had a building the other

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Speaker 2: day and told me that these ties to the Act

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Speaker 2: on Climate. It's costing twenty to thirty thousand dollars more

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Speaker 2: just to build housing units. And we're in a housing

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Speaker 2: crisis and we want to have affordable housing. This Act

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Speaker 2: on Climate affects everything. It affects business start ups, it

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Speaker 2: affects energies on businesses, it affects the economy. If we

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Speaker 2: repeal this bill, it will solve a lot of stuff

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Speaker 2: and we can start all over. It is just what

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Speaker 2: the Governor's talking about is nibbling around the edges of

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Speaker 2: a major problem. I mean, they passed this five years ago,

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Speaker 2: and they set mandates and created a commission to oversee

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Speaker 2: meeting the mandates. From what I'm hearing from the DM

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Speaker 2: study that's coming in, we've got a commission and believe

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Speaker 2: it or not, Special Legislation Commission to study the successful

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Speaker 2: Implementation on the Act on Climate just started meeting. Now

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Speaker 2: they've built the plane, they put it in the sky,

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Speaker 2: and now they're trying to figure out how to land it.

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Speaker 2: While applying, we usually create a law we study everything

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Speaker 2: and figure out how it's going to be implemented and

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Speaker 2: how how we're going to meet our goals and actually

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Speaker 2: do it with this. They built it before they knew

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Speaker 2: how it was going to work, and it's completely destroying

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Speaker 2: our economy. So this bill would probably save a solve

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Speaker 2: a whole lot of problems in the state Rhode Island.

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Speaker 1: Senator, Senator let me just before you go on, I

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Speaker 1: hate to interrupt you, but Senator Gordon Rogers is on

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Speaker 1: the SEACONK supply hotline. Just say that piece one more time.

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Speaker 1: So we've already instituted, as you said, it's attached to everything,

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Speaker 1: the Act on Climate. But what was just what was

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Speaker 1: just formulated a group to study it?

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Speaker 2: Yep. So just at the end of session, Senatorsuria and

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Speaker 2: he is the chairman of the committee, put in a

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Speaker 2: bill to study and they created a special Legislative Commission

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Speaker 2: to study the successful implementation on the Act on Climate.

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Speaker 2: So Act on Climate, the Green New Deal was five

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Speaker 2: years We passed it five years old, five years ago,

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Speaker 2: and now we need a commission to implement it. What

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Speaker 2: does that tell us the bill was a bad idea

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Speaker 2: from the start. The Democrats that our state legislators that

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Speaker 2: don't like to admit it when they mess up, but

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Speaker 2: my legislation gives them an out, and if they vote

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Speaker 2: for them, feels that they can blame me. This whole thing,

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Speaker 2: the planes in the air and they don't know how

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Speaker 2: to land it. So the DM has done some studies

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Speaker 2: and I think that's going to be coming in front

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Speaker 2: of our commission. We're not meeting our our goals, especially

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Speaker 2: in the transportation industry. So, uh, this is a you know,

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Speaker 2: this is a rotting fish and we're just going to

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Speaker 2: talk around cutting fins off of it. The whole thing

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Speaker 2: needs to go into trash can stop from scratch. People

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Speaker 2: are gonna say I'm not for green energy. I have

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Speaker 2: soul around my house, so I'm not against green energy,

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Speaker 2: but I'm fought doing it in a way that doesn't

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Speaker 2: damage the economy. The people that can't afford their electric bills.

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Speaker 2: I got people call me Tommy. They have a five

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Speaker 2: hundred dollars electric bill. In this Act on Climate is

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Speaker 2: gonna mandate a lot of these houses and an infrastructure

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Speaker 2: in these buildings to put the heat pumps in, which

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Speaker 2: is gonna draw a lot of electricity. And the issue

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Speaker 2: with that is you think your bills are high, Now,

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Speaker 2: wait till the infrastructure, the power lines and everything. They're

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Speaker 2: gonna have to be upgraded by Rhode Island Energy to

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Speaker 2: meet the demand on the heat pumps and everything that's

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Speaker 2: being put in these houses. And guess where Rhode Island

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Speaker 2: Energy and the energy company really makes their profit. They

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Speaker 2: don't make it on your electric bill. I'm sending you

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Speaker 2: the electricity. Their major profits come from capital improvements, and

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Speaker 2: we haven't even seen that yet. And as we implement

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Speaker 2: these laws to meet our carbon output by twenty thirty

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Speaker 2: and zero by twenty fifty, the infrastructure and the capital

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Speaker 2: investment that's going to have to be invested to allow

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Speaker 2: that electricity to flow to these houses that are going

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Speaker 2: to be a higher demand. That is the real bomb

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Speaker 2: that's going to go off when RhE Islan Energy comes

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Speaker 2: and says to meet your act on Climate, we've got

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Speaker 2: to spend billions of dollars to upgrade these systems and

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Speaker 2: these poles and wires to send that electricity to your houses.

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Speaker 2: So the real bomb hasn't even come off yet.

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Speaker 1: It is amazing what gets slipped into the budget. And

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Speaker 1: as you said, it's showing up all over the place.

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Speaker 1: So wow, you know I haven't felt it. I have

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Speaker 1: oil so for the most part, and propane, but can I.

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Speaker 2: Talk about oil? Sure? Matter of fact, most people don't

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Speaker 2: know this wasn't part of the Act on Climate was

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Speaker 2: actually prior. As of July first of this year, we

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Speaker 2: have up and with the only state in New England

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Speaker 2: and the only one I think is California that does this.

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Speaker 2: We require biofuels of twenty percent of the mixture. So

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Speaker 2: you are paying more for that same load of oil

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Speaker 2: that has twenty percent biofuels fifteen cents moren't gallon to

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Speaker 2: heat your house than if that same load that didn't

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Speaker 2: have that mandate went to Massachusetts. So and the issue

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Speaker 2: with the biofuels is because they don't want to put

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Speaker 2: too much coo out in the community. The issue with

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Speaker 2: a biofuels it's a higher water content, so it's less btused,

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Speaker 2: So you literally have to burn more fuel to create

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Speaker 2: the same amount of BTUs to get your house up

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Speaker 2: the temperature. And so you're not getting free, free and

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Speaker 2: cleared with even buying oil. Oh boy, this is all

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Speaker 2: tied to the environment. We gotta save the environment.

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Speaker 1: Right right, right every aspect and listen. Like you said,

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Speaker 1: people are going to immediately turn and say, well, you

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Speaker 1: just don't care about the environment and it's not all

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Speaker 1: about money. But I don't think and I hate to

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Speaker 1: say this, but once I heard you say, now, all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden there's a bill to study what they

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Speaker 1: already put into place, it's like, you know, we'll pass

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Speaker 1: the bill before we read the bill. Kind of a situation, exactly.

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Speaker 1: I never have faith when a new program or knew

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Speaker 1: you know what some folks up there think is a

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Speaker 1: you know, a great new program, and you never know

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Speaker 1: if they've done this sufficient study on it. Anything else

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Speaker 1: you want to add to this. Senator Gordon Rodgers is

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Speaker 1: on the SEACONK supply hotline wondering how much support you have.

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Speaker 1: Did you try this last session as well?

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Speaker 2: I did, and I'm glad you brought that up. I

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Speaker 2: did put it in a last session. It didn't even

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Speaker 2: get a hearing date. So that's that's how non important

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Speaker 2: it is to some people at the state House. This year,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to demand a hearing date and hopefully we

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Speaker 2: can get a lot of people to come out and

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Speaker 2: speak to the support on this bill, because it's very important,

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Speaker 2: and that's probably the reason why I didn't get a

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Speaker 2: hearing last year, because they were probably afraid of the

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Speaker 2: outpouring of people that would send, you know, leather's in

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Speaker 2: or show up and testify. The bill went in last week,

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Speaker 2: so I do not have a it's in the hopper,

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Speaker 2: it's in the queue. I don't have a bill number

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Speaker 2: on it yet, but I'm reached out to Sherry Roberts

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Speaker 2: on the House side, and she's gonna do assist the

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Speaker 2: bill that would match mine. And as soon as we

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Speaker 2: get the numbers on the bill, we can track them

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Speaker 2: and we can stop motivated people to come out. And

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Speaker 2: probably the most important money saving bill for the economy

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Speaker 2: in the state of Rhode Island would be this bill.

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Speaker 1: Well, make sure you circle back to me and I will.

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Speaker 1: I have a feeling that if we talk about it

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Speaker 1: in regards to people's electric bills and energy bills and

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Speaker 1: everything else, I think you'll get a lot of people

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Speaker 1: that want to go say, what the hell is this

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Speaker 1: all about? And we need to start over here because

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Speaker 1: it's hurting a lot of families, a lot of folks.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Tara, all.

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Speaker 1: Right, thank you, don't forget to come back whenever you

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Speaker 1: get the hearing dates and all that, and you got it,

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Speaker 1: and people thank you.

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Speaker 2: Senator.

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Speaker 1: Senator Gordon Rodgers. He's a Republican that represents four different areas.

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Speaker 1: Coventry Foster situate in West Carnage