With support from the Fund, EcoRI News Reporters Rob Smith and Colleen Cronin combed through Rhode Island’s environmental laws for months to get a first-of-its-kind comprehensive look at which laws are unenforced, identify which public bodies are destitute and track how little money the state spends on its own environmental goals. They discovered that a 2021 law mandating that all educational institutions divert their food scraps to a compost facility or an anaerobic digester was essentially unenforced and that a 2002 law restricting the use of pesticides at schools and mandating that state agencies work together to create a task force for public education and professional training about pesticides was never implemented. Their reporting unearthed a number of state-created advisory boards that were required to meet regularly and report back to the state but that instead were left empty and eventually became defunct, leaving state residents without a voice on issues that affect their wellbeing.
Grantee investigation of Rhode Island environmental laws finds many not enforced or implemented
