Jo Detz

Rhode Island Supreme Court recently denied a request by four organizations to file a “friend of the court” brief in the long-standing controversy surrounding the proposed Champlin’s Marina & Resort expansion on Block Island. The court provided no reason for rejecting the brief, the filing of which was unopposed by the parties in the appeal. The one-page Supreme Court order was issued Feb. 17.

By ROB SMITH/ecoRI News staff BURRILLVILLE, R.I. — A new utility-scale battery storage facility, the first of its kind in the state, is expected to come online here this spring, giving local ratepayers a minor boost. The project is a collaboration between the Pascoag Utility District and energy storage developer Agilitas Energy, an energy storage company based in Massachusetts.

By CYNTHIA DRUMMOND/ecoRI News contributor Garden designer Owen Wormser describes lawns as “something of a national obsession.” In his 2020 book, “Lawns into Meadows,” he writes about the proliferation of lawns in America and the resources spent on maintaining them. “This massive footprint makes lawns the biggest irrigated crop in the continental United States, and it sucks up an outsized amount of fossil fuels, fertilizer, chemicals and water,” he writes.