“The biggest hardship I hear from Rhode Islanders right now is their growing energy bills,” McKee said.

A few days later,a coalition of environmental groups held a State House press conference, saying McKee’s “shortsighted” proposals “would strip Rhode Islanders of our most potent tools to address skyrocketing energy costs and prolong our dependence on dirty expensive fossil fuels.”

Emily Howe, Rhode Island state director for Clean Water Action, referenced McKee’s coaching days in her critique.

“Coach, the clock is running out of time. Whose playbook are you using?” Howe said. “Are you team Rhode Island? Are you really looking to make energy cleaner and more affordable? Or are you going to continue to use the alt-right MAGA playbook? The ball is in your court.”

In 2021, Rhode Island enacted the Act on Climate, making the state’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions mandatory and enforceable. It calls for cutting those emissions to 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, 80 percent below those levels by 2040, and to “net-zero emissions” by 2050.

“That was not just legislation, that was a promise — our promise to our children, our coastline, which completely surrounds my district, our economy, and the community’s most vulnerable to the consequences of a warming planet,” said Representative Terri Cortvriend, a Portsmouth Democrat. “We must keep that promise.“

In 2022, Rhode Island passed legislation requiring that 100 percent of electricity sold in the state comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2033 — sooner than any other state in the country. McKee signed that bill, saying, “Here in the Ocean State, we know that action to address the climate crisis cannot wait.”

But now McKee is saying that the Trump administration has gutted many clean energy programs and incentives, making the cost of meeting state climate goals challenging for Rhode Island ratepayers. His message: “Rhode Island ratepayers should not pay the price for Trump’s chaos in Washington.”

McKee has proposed pushing back the 2033 deadline to reach 100 percent renewable energy sources for state electricity until 2050. That change would account for more than half of the $1 billion in savings he’s projecting over five years.

Rhode Island already has the fourth-highest residential electric rates in country, McKee said. Without moving the deadline, the Renewable Energy Standard charge on energy bills will quadruple by 2033, he said.

Emily Koo, Rhode Island program director for the Acadia Center, said McKee’s plan would only result in “prolonging our dependence on dirty, expensive fossil fuels.”

“Delaying the Renewable Energy Standard abandons the linchpin to achieving the state’s emission reduction mandates and renders the Act on Climate and the recent 2025 climate strategy obsolete,” she said.

Cortvriend noted Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency just revoked its own 2009 “endangerment finding,” a scientific conclusion that for 16 years has been the central basis for regulating planet-warming emissions from power plants, vehicles and other sources. And she noted the Trump administration has repeatedly tried to halt the Revolution Wind project, a wind farm poised to deliver 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

“That is what we’re up against,” Cortvriend said. “We’ve proven that small states can think big, and this moment demands courage, clarity, evaluation, and continued action.”

McKee spokesperson Laura Hart said the Act on Climate was enacted “under a vastly different federal landscape, based on historic support for wind, solar, and electric vehicle programs.”

The Trump administration and a Republican Congress “have drastically changed the landscape” by decreasing that support, she said. For example, Rhode Island is set to lose over $900 million in electric vehicle tax credit benefits, she said.

“The state can’t put the cost of Trump administration’s misguided efforts to curtail clean energy on the backs of everyday Rhode Islanders,” Hart said. “Energy prices are already stressing family and business budgets, which are also contending with rising costs due to the impact of President Trump’s erratic tariff policy.”

Hart also noted that McKee is proposing a $50 million “Green Economy Bond” that includes $20 million for climate resiliency efforts and $10 million for energy efficiency programs.

Koo criticized McKee’s proposal to cap ratepayer-funded charges at $75 million per year for energy efficiency programs.

“The cheapest megawatt is the megawatt we don’t use, often called a negawatt,” she said. “Energy efficiency directly lowers bills, and by reducing demand suppresses prices across the region. By pinning the blame on state mandates and taxes, Governor McKee’s budget ignores the benefits of clean energy and the primary drivers of energy costs.”

Koo said the charges that support renewable and energy efficiency programs help reduce the largest and growing components of energy bills — supply and delivery costs.

“It’s a glaring emission to report the costs of clean energy while ignoring all of the cost savings,” she said. “Clean energy isn’t at odds with affordability. It’s essential to it.”

McKee’s initiative is receiving praise from other quarters.

Melissa Travis, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association, said energy costs are one of the biggest threats to local manufacturing competitiveness.

“Governor McKee’s executive order supports the necessary steps for restoring balance, protecting jobs, and ensuring that families and businesses are not priced out by policies that ignore real-world impact,” she said.

Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, a North Smithfield Republican, and Senate Minority Whip Gordon E. Rogers, a Foster Republican, issued a statement noting their past opposition to the Act on Climate and the Renewable Energy Standard.

“It is good to know the Governor supports our advocacy and at long last realizes the detrimental effect of the policies he has historically championed,” de la Cruz said. “Now is the time to put partisanship aside and correct the failed policies that have given rise to some of the highest electricity rates in the country.”

Rogers said, “If the governor’s efforts to solve problems he helped create do not include a full repeal of mandates and significant reduction in taxpayer subsidies, then he is gaslighting the people of Rhode Island – it’s just too bad that gaslighting can’t be used to heat and power our homes.”

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.