Environment

R.I. lawmakers consider constitutional right to a clean environment

If adopted, it would be decided by voters next year.
Dan Fischer, of Newport, R.I., carries his surfboard on Easton’s Beach, in Newport, Wednesday, May 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Rhode Island lawmakers are considering putting before voters a so-called green amendment that would make it the fourth state to provide a right to a clean environment.

The amendment provides for an “inherent, inalienable, indefeasible, and self-executing” constitutional right “to clean air, clean water, healthy and uncontaminated soil, a life-supporting climate, and the preservation of the environment’s natural, scenic, and recreational values.”

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