The above pie chart speaks for itself.  Rhode Island’s greenhouse gas emissions are so small, they barely register on the chart.

That Rhode Island, the smallest state in the country and, on top of that, one with a poor business climate that has further driven down its carbon footprint [because that’s the highest priority, right? ;)] has tiny GG emissions seems like one of those things that is so obvious, it doesn’t need to be pointed out.  Like noting that vertically challenged people don’t make the best basketball players.  Or that Sumo Wrestler is probably not on the short list of career options for the guy with a 98 pound frame.

But apparently this does need to be pointed out.  Because the “2021 Act on Climate” law, which effectively bans all fossil fuels – gasoline, diesel, heating oil, coal, natural gas and propane – in Rhode Island and for its electric grid, is still very much on the books and being acted on.  The Act is

aimed at addressing climate change

Here’s the thing.  Rhode Island’s greenhouse gas emissions are so small – at the risk, once again, of pointing out something pretty obvious! –  that going to net zero would have zero effect on global warming … er, climate change.

But, you ask, what’s wrong with jettisoning fossil fuels and switching to offshore wind energy, as many of our elected officials wish us to do?  It’s a nice, clean (cough, cough) energy source.

Because offshore wind generates power at most only 50% of the time.  

So the proposed switch to offshore wind is a proposal for Rhode Island to

derive 80-90% of its electricity from offshore wind by the end of the decade

as well as power all of the state’s other sectors – heating, cooling, transportation, manufacturing, medical, construction, etc – by 2050 from a source with a capacity of only 50%.  (At an exorbitantly expensive price, to boot.)

50% capacity to take care of “80-90%” of our energy needs?  Come to think of it, that’s something that is not at all obvious.  Can we get an explanation as to how that’s going to work?

It’s an election year.  Perhaps our elected officials can be asked to explain this, either at candidate forums or when they knock on your door to ask for your vote.

Notes about the pie chart:

> The total greenhouse gas reflected in the pie chart is manmade only and does not include greenhouse gases generated naturally by Planet Earth.  In other words, the chart excludes 94% of greenhouse gases generated.