Projo Politics Blog

Dr. Phil Brown, left, professor of sociology and environmental studies at Brown University, speaks during the protests by environmental groups outside the Pawtucket office of lobbyist Robert Goldberg Tuesday. Providence Journal photo / Mary Murphy

By Gina Macris and Mike Stanton

House Majority Leader Gordon Fox visited a polluted Tiverton neighborhood Tuesday morning to tell its long-suffering residents that legislative leaders are now behind an oft-delayed bill to raise fines on environmental polluters in Rhode Island.

Fox also apologized to residents for the bill's failure to pass at the end of last year's General Assembly session, when powerful lobbyist Robert D. Goldberg had opposed it despite widespread support from lawmakers.

But with the fate of the bill this year shrouded in uncertainty, 18 environmentalists and other advocates protested outside Goldberg's Pawtucket law office, calling him an obstacle to an important anti-polluter bill and urging him to give back the "dirty money'' of Southern Union Company, the Texas-based corporation that state regulators hold responsible for the pollution in Tiverton.

The protesters stood peacefully outside Goldberg's law office, around a wheelbarrow filled with Monopoly money and blue-tinted dirt representing the cyanide contamination that has plagued the North Tiverton neighborhood. Later, they delivered a bag of the dirt and money mixture to Goldberg's secretary, along with a letter asking him to return Southern Union's money and support passage of the bill as "the right thing to do for Rhode Island.'' Goldberg was not there.

Southern Union paid Goldberg, who is close to House Speaker William Murphy, $45,000 to lobby against the bill last year and is paying him $5,000 a month this year.

The legislation seemed in limbo until Friday, when Fox's office finally posted it for a committee hearing this Thursday.

Rep. Jan Malik, D-Warren, chairman of the House Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, has been outspoken in his support of the bill this year, "no matter what happens to me.'' Last week, he told a Journal reporter that he was reluctant to post any bills in his committee for a vote until House leaders gave clearance to the bill raising fines on polluters.

 Tags  Pawtucket RI Robert Goldberg Southern Union Speaker William J. Murphy Tiverton RI

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