Our 2024 Legislative Priorities

Our 2024 Legislative Priorities

by Topher Hamblett, executive director

The Rhode Island General Assembly’s 2024 Legislative Session is underway, and Save The Bay is once again championing policies that will protect and improve Narragansett Bay, while defending the Bay against legislation that could cause harm. We are excited to work with legislators and other state leaders on several initiatives, including our 2024 legislative priorities:

• Reforming CRMC
  The RI Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC)—the agency charged with protecting the coastal environment, ensuring public access to and along the shoreline, enforcing coastal laws, and managing development—does not run like a normal administrative agency. Instead, it has an outdated structure that lacks accountability, invites abuse, and causes delays in permitting coastal development.The cornerstone of that problematic structure is the Council– a 10-member board with vast decision-making powers but whose members are politically appointed volunteers who are not required to have expertise in coastal matters. Save The Bay is working with a wide range of organizations to support legislation to remove the Council, and restructure CRMC as a normal agency, just like, for example, DEM, whose Executive Director is ultimately accountable.CRMC reform is Save The Bay’s top policy priority.  With climate changes causing rapid changes to our coast, Rhode Island deserves a coastal agency that is up to the task of its mission to protect and restore coastal resources, manage competing uses of the Bay, and operate transparently, free from avoidable political influence and conflicts of interest.
• Tackling Plastics
  As data we collect from our volunteer shoreline cleanups have shown, discarded single-use plastic bottles are a major source of pollution of our coastal beaches and waters.  And, like all plastic pollution, these bottles never “go away”; instead, they break down over time into smaller pieces of “microplastics” that litter the bottom of Narragansett Bay and enter the food chain when consumed by Bay species.Save The Bay is a member of the Plastic Bottle Waste Commission, a joint study commission of the General Assembly that is developing policy recommendations for action by the full General Assembly. In the 2024 session, we will advocate for a bottle deposit law that will help keep plastic bottles off the shoreline and in the recycling stream.
• Investing in the Bay and Protection of the Environment
  Save The Bay will once again have a close eye on the Governor’s budget, with two main items in mind:
  1. We expect Governor McKee to propose a budget that includes a “Green Bond” ballot measure – to be approved by Rhode Island voters in November – that will make investments in water quality, climate resilience, watershed protection, public access to the Bay and other important measures. We anticipate supporting this measure both as a part of the budget and during the November election, as long it prioritizes items that support a clean and healthy Narragansett Bay. 
  2. We will also advocate for funding that will support building capacity at both the CRMC—our woefully underfunded coastal agency—and the Department of Environmental Management’s environmental protection programs.

Stay tuned for updates about our progress and get involved in our efforts by joining our Voter Voice action network! Sign up at savebay.org/advocacy to receive updates on legislative hearings, votes, and to be notified when we need you to contact your legislators to advocate for Narragansett Bay!