Gov. Dan McKee recently signed an executive order pledging to save Rhode Islanders $1 billion in energy costs under the guise of affordability. He unfairly scapegoats the Trump administration for higher electricity bills, when the blame rests with state lawmakers like him.
According to new polling from the nonprofit Independent Women’s Network, 82% of Rhode Island women say they’re paying more for their electricity bills compared with five years ago.
Like other New England states, Rhode Island embraced aggressive climate policies to phase out oil, gas and coal and transition to 100% wind and solar energy by 2050. The McKee administration has cast utility companies and the federal government as villains, yet state-level decarbonization policy choices led to our state’s higher costs. Under the Federal Power Act, Congress gave states like Rhode Island near-exclusive power to regulate electricity within its borders.
Over the last five years, high energy costs have plagued Rhode Island. Between 2019 and 2024, electricity prices grew 29% – the seventh highest retail electricity rates in the United States. The average household paid $176.62 per month in utility bills as of March 2026 – or 19% more compared to the national average. That’s not by accident.
Like its neighbors, Rhode Island passed green energy policies that mandated increasing amounts of wind and solar energy while taxing carbon emissions through a regional cap-and-trade program. That’s why 56% of poll respondents admitted they feel misled by state politicians about the cost and effectiveness of 100% renewable energy policies.
The Independent Women’s poll also found that Rhode Island women support reliable energy sources like natural gas, with 62% expressing support for it. An inconvenient truth: Despite what McKee and climate-first politicians say, there is no green energy transition happening in Rhode Island. Per the Energy Information Administration (EIA), 87% of Rhode Island’s current energy mix is chiefly natural gas, with renewables only accounting for about 6%. That’s why Governor McKee, a climate hawk, conceded last year that natural gas and nuclear energy will play a role in the Ocean State’s energy future.
McKee’s executive order says the removal of wind and solar subsidies will raise energy bills. But these sources aren’t reliable or affordable to begin with. Because wind and solar are intermittent electricity sources, they require overbuilding of wind and solar capacity, building reliable backup generation and other additional costs.
If leaders in Providence don’t reconsider climate policies, like the rest of New England, Rhode Island would see energy costs spike $815 billion through 2050. But there’s a solution to our self-inflicted energy woes. A new report by Always On Energy Research and a coalition of Northeastern think tanks, Alternatives to New England’s Energy Affordability Crisis, argues that building natural gas and nuclear power, over costly, unreliable offshore wind and solar projects, will save New Englanders approximately $700 billion in energy costs.
Due to deregulation and abundance policies, energy inflation is down nationally. This hasn’t trickled down to states like Rhode Island yet because it clings to green policies that invite higher energy rates.
If Governor McKee wants to deliver energy affordability for Rhode Islanders, he must do some self-introspection and repeal climate policies that created our electricity crisis.