Republican challenger Robert Flanders said he supports continuing tax incentives for entrepreneurs and green energy innovators so they can develop the tools needed to deal with climate change.
However, Flanders said the approach also needs to be practical.
“We can’t cashier all reliance on fossil fuels prematurely. We have to be prudent, we don’t want to put ourselves at a terrible disadvantage both regionally, nationally, let alone internationally,” he said.
Flanders said using caution could help avoid higher energy rates for Rhode Islanders.
Democratic incumbent Sheldon Whitehouse said there needs to be more urgency to address climate change. He said a $700 billion-a-year subsidy for the fossil fuel industry is hurting progress.
“Fortunately, the renewables are growing fast enough that they’re able to overcome that subsidy and we’re starting to see some real cross-over points with renewables becoming not only better for the environment and the planet than fossil fuel but actually cheaper than fossil fuel,” Whitehouse said.
Republican Flanders countered by saying Whitehouse has been hypocritical by staying silent on a proposal for a natural gas power plant in the town of Burrillville.
Whitehouse said that’s because the proposal is before a state board, which he sees as a judicial process.
“To try to butt into that, I don’t see that as being particularly different from going into a courtroom and saying, ‘Oh jury, for this political reason, you should rule in this particular way,’” he said.
The U.S. Senate election is Nov. 6.