Rhode Island Politicians, Always Willing to Sacrifice and Scare Their People

Well, this, as reported on WPRI by Steph Machado, comes as no surprise:

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker have both joined a new coalition of states responding to President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

… Raimondo has previously announced a plan for Rhode Island to have 1,000 megawatts of clean energy by 2020. The figure would represent ten times more clean energy than the state had in 2016. She has also said she wants to double the amount of clean energy jobs by that date.

On the scale of the governor’s priorities, making Rhode Island’s economy one in which Rhode Islanders can thrive of their own initiative doesn’t come close to matching political posturing and further embedding of government in every human activity.  Note the concern of German automobile industry interests that they cannot be competitive against those not hampered by the Paris rules (via Stephen Green on Instapundit).  Raimondo’s zeal, in other words, will implicitly hamper Rhode Island industry; that’s the standard approach of our ruling class.

And so, we get the sort of news that Patrick Anderson reports in the Providence Journal:

Could Connecticut’s latest corporate loss be Rhode Island’s gain?

No, according to insurance giant Aetna, which said this week that Rhode Island is not among the “several states” the company is eyeing as a new location for its longstanding headquarters in Hartford.

The reason Rhode Island feels the need to rack up crony corporate giveaways is that our taxes and regulations are so burdensome and, perhaps worse, the state government is always, always tightening the screws.  No industry can trust that avaricious politicians and special interests won’t target it.  It’s either jump into the corrupt extortionist game (to at least block competition) or look elsewhere.

At least we can be grateful that some of our politicians feel so secure that they are comfortable displaying their extremism for all to see.  From the first link above:

“Trump is betraying the country, in the service of Breitbart fake news, the shameless fossil fuel industry, and the Koch brothers’ climate denial operation, [Democrat U.S. Senator from Rhode Island Sheldon] Whitehouse said after Trump announced the U.S. would pull out of the [Paris] deal.

So, President Obama committed the United States to giving other countries leverage over our own policy decisions and refused to submit the plan as a treaty to the United States Senate because Americans’ elected representatives would not have supported the deal, and it’s President Trump who is “betraying the country”?  Embarrassing.  If only local media would reorient themselves to the center line of reasonable rhetoric and start making these extremists justify their propaganda.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in The Ocean State Current, including text, graphics, images, and information are solely those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the views and opinions of The Current, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, or its members or staff. The Current cannot be held responsible for information posted or provided by third-party sources. Readers are encouraged to fact check any information on this web site with other sources.

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