Ken Block
IndependentQ1 Rhode Island has among the highest electricity prices in the country, with the Governor’s office having declared an Energy Affordability State of Emergency in July 2026. What policies, if any, would you support to reduce energy costs for Rhode Islanders, and how will you balance maintaining grid reliability and meeting the state’s long-term climate goals?
Taxes and fees, many of them hidden, make up about 40% of RI’s electric bill. Our legislature shifts costs onto business electric bills to subsidize residential bills. I want to simplify our utility bills and make them less expensive by removing these taxes and fees. We should debate energy policy openly, every year, as part of our budget process. Moving taxes and fees from our energy bills into the budget, paid for through regular taxing means like corporate and personal taxes, will make our electric bills less regressive.
What passes for RI’s energy policy and goals is, at best, a disconnected series of fees and spending programs. We have set a goal of “100% green” by 2033. The only way to meet that goal is to send money out-of-state – huge sums – to buy green energy certificates that are only good for one year. This isn’t “going green”. It isn’t stimulative. To meet our 2033 goal, we will end up spending over $100 million every year to buy out-of-state certificates. That money should be spent to develop green energy infrastructure in RI. When we do, we build decades of green energy from our investment.
Keywords: taxes fees investment
Q2 Rhode Island has proposed more reporting, utility oversight, and zoning guidance for large data centers, along with shifting some generation, capacity, and reliability costs onto data center developers rather than ordinary ratepayers. How should the costs and benefits of large data center development be divided between developers and the public, and what requirements, if any, would you support on power, water, and public reporting before a project moves forward?
Rhode Island could certainly use the economic stimulus that can come from large data center development, although most of that stimulus comes from the construction phase. If the data center pays for all its electrical infrastructure needs, and statewide ratepayers don’t bear those expenses, the project could lower electric rates in our state. Of course, our very high cost of electricity likely makes RI an unlikely place for a large data center to choose.
New England’s grid is also under supply pressure, making a data center’s huge demands a concern.
As far as water consumption, RI should mandate that any data center use a closed-loop cooling system.
Rhode Island should be able to protect everyone’s interests through carefully crafted legislation.
Do I think that a large data center is in our state’s future? I do not.
Keywords: closed-loop infrastructure supply
Q3 Rhode Island faces environmental challenges including sea-level rise, flooding, coastal erosion, and extreme weather. How should the state prioritize and fund environmental resilience projects, and what scientific or economic criteria should be used to determine which communities and infrastructure receive investment first?
The waters are rising, and RI will see escalating loss of land, property, and infrastructure. I am unaware of any credible way to eliminate this threat. We can raise roads and elevate utility infrastructure. However, in my town, Barrington, streets flood during king tides. Our beach now disappears during normal high tides.
Too many of our shoreline communities will experience this loss. A critical public policy debate needs to happen soon: what can we afford to spend to provide a temporary reprieve from the inevitable inundation to come?
Many interests compete for state spending. A third of the population is on Medicaid, and Medicaid spending is about $5 billion in our $15 billion budget. We are probably not spending enough on it. We are definitely not addressing the root cause: poor educational outcomes in our urban school districts.
RI will be forced to triage our response to rising waters. We should plan for how we retreat from areas that we know will be lost.
Keywords: budget inevitability planning
Q4 PFAS chemicals are widely used in consumer products but have raised health concerns due to their persistence in the environment and humans, and new state legislature-passed restrictions on their use will soon begin to be implemented. How should the state respond as scientific evidence about PFAS exposure and health effects continues to evolve? What balance should policymakers strike among public-health protection, testing and monitoring, feasibility for manufacturers, and the availability of safer substitutes?
It should go without saying that the state needs to follow the science and act to protect our residents’ health.
Testing and monitoring are easy things for state government to do. Governments are good at this sort of thing.
I cannot speak to “feasibility for manufacturers” or “availability of safer substitutes”. This requires specialized knowledge that few people outside those manufacturers can possibly have. I imagine that manufacturers will find safer alternatives – especially if they know that they can no longer produce goods that contain PFAS.
Lastly, we have to make tainted water supplies safe, which can be quite costly. System-wide solutions address the problem for all water supplied to businesses and households, while end-point filtering systems can make water safe for consumption without treating water used for other purposes.
Keywords: test treat cost
Q5 Rhode Island has seen an over 50% decline in drug overdose deaths since 2022, already surpassing its 2030 reduction goal. Which evidence-based policies related to prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery would you prioritize to ensure continued positive progress, and how would you evaluate whether state investments are reducing overdose deaths and improving long-term outcomes?
What RI has been doing is working. As Governor, I will allow the professionals who designed our current policies to continue their work and plans. I would only consider changing course if the improvements we currently enjoy are not continuous.
Keywords: stay the course
Q6 Rhode Island universities, hospitals, and research organizations are a core part of our state’s economy and rely heavily on government support for biomedical and scientific research. What policies, if any, would you support to ensure stable research funding while also promoting accountability, scientific integrity, and translation of federally funded discoveries into benefits for Rhode Island communities?
Higher education research funding is very limited in RI’s budget. Most of that funding comes from the federal government and grant programs.
To be blunt, I don’t see how RI can replace substantial chunks of federal money if it’s withdrawn. Our social services safety net depends on federal funding that might disappear. As I have stated in other answers, the demands on the state budget are extraordinary.
Accountability and integrity in the research community are not something that is typically driven by a state’s executive branch. I expect academia to provide the guardrails for the research programs under its purview.
Keywords: federal scarce oversight