PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s renewable energy programs could see their biggest changes in almost two decades, if state lawmakers approve Gov. Dan McKee’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal.

The state Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Jan. 15 rolled out the $15 billion state budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year starting July 1. Included in the proposal, as part of the governor’s bid for “Affordability for All,” are a series of cuts and caps to the programs that fund renewable energy goals and are funded from state taxes and charges on monthly utility programs.

The changes would save ratepayers $1 billion over the next five years, state budget officials said. A month-to-month estimate provided shows ratepayers would save around $180 a year on average, or $15 every month on their utility bills.

McKee’s proposal also includes pushing back the 2033 deadline for Rhode Island’s 100% Renewable Energy Standard, spreading out the increases in renewable energy sourcing to 2050. Pushing back the requirements of the standard would save ratepayers $62 million next year, and a combined $572 million by the end of 2031, according to the governor’s proposal.

But any delay in the standard also means a delay in executing the Act on Climate law. Last month the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council, better known as EC4, issued its climate action strategy, written under the assumption the current Renewable Energy Standard requirements would remain state law.

Pushing back the standard 17 years changes the math on how Rhode Island reaches its emission reduction mandates. State environmental leaders told ecoRI News they don’t know what the possible impact on emission reductions would be if the extension was approved this year.

Terry Gray, director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and chair of the EC4, said it was imperative to make electricity more affordable for Rhode Islanders so the state could achieve its electrification goals.

“If people aren’t comfortable with the price instability of electricity they’re not going to buy and use heat pumps, they’re not going to transition to electric vehicles,” Gray said. “There’s going to be this general discomfort with it, and it’s a foundational thing to decarbonize.”

Meanwhile, the state’s environmental groups, which applauded the passage of the Act on Climate in 2021 and the 100% Renewable Energy Standard law in 2022, aren’t pleased the state is rolling back its commitments. Emily Koo, Rhode Island program director for the Acadia Center, said pushing back the targets outlined in the Renewable Energy Standard would exacerbate the state’s burgeoning overreliance on natural gas and do little to combat high energy rates.

“To tackle energy costs, Rhode Island’s focus should be on building more renewables, not on rolling back our targets. Renewable energy reduces costs and protects customers from volatile and increasingly expensive natural gas,” Koo wrote in an email.

Other changes in the governor’s budget proposal include freezing the rates of net-metering, one of two state programs used to spur solar development, at 2026 levels. The cost of the program has grown 250% in the past five years, from $30 million in 2020 to $111 million last year, with most of the cost going toward renewable energy projects greater than 1 megawatt in size.

According to the governor’s proposal, reducing the costs would save ratepayers $35 million next year and a combined $175 million by the end of 2031.

The other major reduction would come from the state’s energy efficiency program, which saw a 42-cent reduction approved by the state Public Utilities Commission last year, over the protests of some environmental groups. The program offers rebates, incentives, and services to help Rhode Island residents, businesses, and institutions manage their energy usage, and are funded by an energy efficiency charge on all customers’ gas and electric bills.

McKee’s proposal would cap ratepayer-funded charges to the program at $75 million per year, and have the program renewed every three years instead of annually as is currently done. OMB officials said it would align per capita customer spending in line with Connecticut and Massachusetts, and other nearby states were cutting costs in their programs as energy prices remain high.

Capping the program would save $21 million next fiscal year, or a combined $105 million over five years, according to state estimates.

The governor’s budget also proposes a 2-cent drop in the gas tax, reversing the increase from last year but retaining the funds allocated to the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA). The decrease in the tax, said budget officials, will come from that 2-cent portion of the gas tax that was being used for debt service that has been paid off, passing the savings onto taxpayers.

McKee’s proposal also closes RIPTA’s projected $13.8 million deficit for next fiscal year by increasing funding in the Highway Maintenance Account by $9.3 million; adding additional funding from capital budget plan funds for bus purchases; and adding another $1 million in additional cruise operator fees.

But the proposal, if enacted, ossifies the destructive service cuts RIPTA had to implement due to its ongoing budget deficit last fall. The cuts to service and bus frequency have been decried by riders, drivers, and transit advocates who have been lobbying for the state to take public transit more seriously.

In a statement, the Save RIPTA coalition said it was grateful for the proposal to definitely close RIPTA’s ongoing fiscal woes, but criticized the transit agency’s service cuts as far from the “right size” for it.

“We are seeing the consequences of what happens when vital transportation services are taken away: thousands of RIPTA riders have lost employment and income, lost their ability to get to work and school on time, been forced to change housing, and been locked out of educational, commercial, and civic opportunities,” the group wrote in an emailed statement. “If Governor McKee and the General Assembly truly seek greater affordability and advancement for Rhode Island, they must reverse the cuts and invest in sustainable funding that expands our only public transit system.”

McKee’s budget also includes a $50 million Green Economy and Clean Energy bond, which if passed by the General Assembly would appear this fall on Election Day ballots.

The bond includes:

$20 million for the Resilient Rhody Fund, which assists municipalities in improving the climate resilience of local infrastructure and coastal habits.

$10 million for Energy Efficiency Infrastructure, to offset the costs from charges on utility bills to state debt service.

$8 million in facility improvements, to renovate and repair recreational facilities and build new parks and areas.

$7 million for Narragansett Bay Water Restoration to improve water quality.

$3 million for brownfields remediation.

$1 million for local recreation projects.

$1 million for marine infrastructure pier repair and development.

The budget proposal now heads to the General Assembly for consideration, with some version of the governor’s budget to be voted on later this spring.