GAO and ClimateLitigationWatch readers are familiar with the effort by the State of Rhode Island to sue energy companies in state court for causing climate change, hoping to cash in after the administration concluded that the State’s “Assembly [had] very conservative leadership — don’t care about env’t”, leaving the Governor “looking for sustainable funding stream”.
So it should be no surprise that at her confirmation hearing to serve as Pres. Biden’s Secretary of Commerce Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo continued the line that the “climate” agenda spending ambitions cost a lot of money, “We need funds”, and someone’s just going to have to suck it up and hand over their money to pay for them.
“We need funds”. — Commerce Sec. Nominee Gina Raimondo
According to two contemporaneous sets of notes from a meeting at (natch) the Rockefeller mansion — one set handwritten by a Rocky Mountain Institute aide, another by a rep from Tom Steyer’s energy Foundation — Raimondo’s own Cabinet aide, Department of Environmental Management chief Janet Coit, laid out that that meant suing “in state court” for “priority — sustainable funding stream”.
So dig deep, they’ve got a spending agenda. And you’re just the folks to pay for it.