Rhode Island proposes green housing bill that rewards builders with ‘green coin’

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Lawmakers in the state of Rhode Island have proposed a housing bill that will reward environmentally conscientious builders with digital currencies. Named the Green Housing Public-Private Partnership Act, the bill was introduced by Rep. Carlos Tobon (D-Dist. 58, Pawtucket), with support from other Democratic and Republican representatives.

Majorly, the lawmakers argue that the housing sector contributes substantially to the problems of pollution and global warming. The energy cost of the sector has been increasing and is showing no signs of coming down. And according to the lawmakers, housing projects can tackle the problems by using high-performance methods for construction.

To incentivize this, the proposal will charge the state’s public utility commission to issue annual reports on the utility costs and carbon emissions of housing projects. Housing projects that are found to have reduced their carbon footprint below a set cut-off will then be rewarded with the state’s digital currency called “Green coin.”

“Any reduction amount of utility costs attributable to any housing construction project pursuant to this chapter shall be assigned a credit amount which credit shall be eligible for redemption in byway of crypto currency in the form of a green coin to be issued by the department to the property owner,” the bill said.

It remains unclear which blockchain the novel green coin will be issued on, but the bill states that the state will own about 25% of any revenue that accrues from the exchange of the carbon credit incentive.

The bill stipulates that a $500 million Rhode Island Green housing fund will be set up through donations from banking institutions based in the state. The state will also contribute $125 million, and the funds will be used to finance housing projects that comply with sustainability standards.

The lawmakers hope that the initiative will allow the state to meet its massive housing shortage. Data from Redfin shows that the number of homes available for sale in the state has dropped since 2020.

Other states are also leveraging blockchain technology

Several other states have also jumped on the bandwagon of adopting blockchain technology. These states, such as Texas, Florida, Wyoming, and Oklahoma, have been suiting their policy direction towards their own needs.

For Texas and Wyoming, the focus has been to attract Bitcoin block reward mining firms to the state. Texas lawmakers have noted that Bitcoin block reward miners can help stabilize the state’s power grid.

Watch: CoinGeek New York panel, How to Achieve Green Bitcoin: Energy Consumption & Environmental Sustainability