Rhode Island
Band-Aid on a Mandate: McKee’s $28M RGGI Credits Paper Over Rhode Island’s Winter Rate Spike
What happened
On Sep 24, 2026, the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission approved $28 million in winter electric bill credits, Gov. Dan McKee announced. More than 450,000 Rhode Island Energy residential accounts on rates A-16 and A-60 will see a $20.45 credit in January, February, and March 2027—$61.35 total.
The credits are funded from Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) auction reserves, redirected under McKee’s “energy affordability emergency” declared July 23, 2026 after Rhode Island Energy proposed roughly a 15% winter electricity rate increase. RGGI is the multi-state CO2 cap-and-trade program; Rhode Island is now rebating a slice of those auction proceeds as temporary bill relief.
The RGGI credits stack on roughly $14/month starting in October under the PPL/Narragansett “hold-harmless” settlement credits. Combined, residential customers would see about $34/month across the three winter months, or more than $100 over that period. The administration says the two efforts together amount to nearly $200 million in energy bill relief.
July 23 context (TurnTo10/WJAR): Rhode Island Energy CEO Greg Cornett cited higher ISO-NE administrative costs, commodity prices, and geopolitics/LNG as drivers of the proposed hike. McKee said the roughly $61 credits would fully offset the rate increase for the average ratepayer. United Way 211 reported nearly five times as many energy-related calls in May–June versus the prior year.
Original reporting
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Virtue Forge commentary
Climate-mandate and regional carbon-auction architecture helps sustain New England’s high-cost energy environment. Then the same political class declares an “emergency” and recycles RGGI auction cash as short-term credits that do not fix scarcity, transmission constraints, or commodity exposure. A three-month rebate is not a market reform—it is a Band-Aid on a mandate stack.
Free enterprise lowers prices by expanding reliable supply and letting customers see tradeoffs. Temporary RGGI rebates plus hold-harmless settlement credits may blunt a winter spike for three months; they do not repeal the scarcity and policy choices that keep New England expensive. Humble government would publish the lasting cost drivers and compete on generation and wires—not declare emergencies every time the auction jar has cash left to redistribute.