by Topher Hamblett, executive director<\/strong><\/p>\n 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:<\/span><\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong>The RI Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC)\u2014the agency charged with protecting the coastal environment, ensuring public access to and along the shoreline, enforcing coastal laws, and managing development\u2014does 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 Instead, it has an outdated structure that lacks accountability, invites abuse, and causes delays in permitting coastal development.<\/span><\/span>The cornerstone of that problematic structure is the Council\u2013 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\u2019s top policy priority.\u00a0 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.<\/li>\n
\n<\/b>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.\u00a0 And, like all plastic pollution, these bottles never \u201cgo away\u201d; instead, they break down over time into smaller pieces of \u201cmicroplastics\u201d that litter the bottom of Narragansett Bay and enter the food chain when consumed by Bay species.<\/span><\/span>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.<\/li>\n
\n<\/b>Save The Bay will once again have a close eye on the Governor\u2019s budget, with two main items in mind:<\/span><\/p>\n\n