RIDOT environmental planner job, key to meeting state climate goals, draws just seven applicants

An opening at the Rhode Island Department of Transportation for an environmental planner who can help the state achieve its climate goals has drawn little interest. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)

The job of helping Rhode Island’s transportation sector achieve its goals of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 required a master’s degree and supervisory experience.

But when applications closed June 30, only seven people applied to be the Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s (RIDOT) supervising environmental planner.

“We estimate having someone in the position late summer/early fall,” said RIDOT spokesperson Charles St. Martin.

The new position at RIDOT comes three years after Gov. Dan McKee signed the Act on Climate , which requires the state to develop a plan to reduce all climate emissions from transportation, buildings and heating, and electricity to 45% below 1990 levels by 2030, 80% below 1990 levels by 2040, and net-zero by 2050.

The annual salary range is $73,240 to $82,925, according to the June 21 online job posting .

That pay rate seemed a little low for such an important job, observed GrowSmart RI Deputy Director John Flaherty. “But maybe they’re aiming for somebody who was recently out of grad school,” he said.

Flaherty added he was not surprised to see that only seven had applied for the position.

“It’s difficult hiring people in this market,” he said.

Candidates for the position were required to have a master’s degree in landscape architecture, geography, natural resources, civil or environmental engineering, soil science, or “a closely related field.” The job posting also asked for experience in supervision for regional or statewide programs. It did not specify how many years experience was needed.

St. Martin said RIDOT has employed environmental experts in the past, but they have worked in different sections of the department. RIDOT’s has an environmental division consisting of three different units: natural resources, stormwater, and landscape architecture.

This new position, St. Martin said, would be responsible for handling inland flooding across the state along with carrying out the department’s Carbon Reduction Plan.

Final carbon reduction plan spends more, but still leaves critics disappointed

Under the federal government’s bipartisan Infrastructure law passed in 2021, states were required to create a plan and submit it to the Federal Highway Administration by Nov. 15 in order to receive funding for projects listed.

The plan was submitted last fall to the Federal Highway Administration and was approved in the winter, St. Martin said. Rhode Island is slated to get more than $35.7 million over five years .

Critics of the plan claimed it did not do enough to try and shift Rhode Island toward alternative modes of transit such as bike, bus, and rail. Overall, $17.9 million — over half of Rhode Island’s designated Carbon Reduction Program funds — are committed to improvements such as sidewalk accessibility upgrades at Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus stops, along with bike path renovations.

But transit and environmental advocates say a new environmental planner could now tweak the state’s strategy to have even more green projects via the State Transportation Improvement Program, which seeks to invest $9.5 billion over 10 years in highway and road repairs including new bridges and new pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.

The plan does not require an emissions reduction analysis in determining what projects the state should tackle, said Emily Koo, senior policy director and Rhode Island program director for the Maine-based Acadia Center.

“So it makes really broad sweeps of weighing things,” she said. “There has to be an analysis in order for there to be factored criteria — so maybe this person can do that.”

Flaherty called RIDOT’s move to hire an environmental planner a step in the right direction.

“We have our work cut out for us — we’ve been a little slow off the mark on this,” he said.

The state’s transportation sector is responsible for nearly 40% of Rhode island’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Office of Energy Resources .

Flaherty pointed to Colorado for establishing a framework Rhode Island should follow. He cited a 2021 rule created by the Colorado Department of Transportation that sets an emissions ceiling that, if a project exceeds, requires the state to invest further in carbon-reducing alternatives such as public transit.

“I don’t know if we’ll get to that point, but at least hiring somebody to do this work and begin quantifying and working on models — it’s a very good step in the right direction,” Flaherty said.

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