Walking through Downtown Newport this time of year usually reveals a number of dimmed lights, papered windows,  and for lease signs at neighborhood businesses. Some are just closed for the season. Others are closed for good.

However, as Rhode Island continues to struggle under the weight of its $600 million deficit, the state’s inability to attract new businesses threatens to disrupt the seasonal ebb and flow of Newport’s economic activity. While Newport will remain a popular destination for tourists due to its natural and historic beauty, the state’s bleak economic outlook may discourage new business development.

For a solution, Aquidneck residents may not have to look further than out their windows.
At a symposium at Brown University last Tuesday, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D - R.I.) referenced an emerging concept currently beginning to take hold in our political lexicon: that of the “green collar” workforce.

Addressing some of the state’s soon to be best and brightest former residents, Whitehouse argued that Rhode Island could be a leader in putting the “eco” in economy.
Should America’s fixation on “going green” endure for longer than our fleeting collective attention span would suggest, not only the way we conduct our lives will change, but the way we conduct our business will as well.

The prevailing fear among conservatives is that by imposing environmental mandates on the private industry will hinder, if not end America’s economic dominance.

However, for Rhode Island, the green economy may be our best bet to turning our economy around. With an underdeveloped coastal industrial park at Quonset, the possibility of wave technology coming to Block Island, and Governor Carcieri’s RIWinds initiative which seeks to generate 15 percent of the state’s energy by 2012, the pieces appear in place to make Rhode Island a leader in alternative energy equipment and technology development. Creating partnerships with higher education and high tech centers like NAVSTA Newport, URI, and Brown University, could also give students coming into the job market a bustling industry to join.
Rhode Island once gave birth to the industrial revolution at Slater’s Mill along the Blackstone River. Perhaps the eco-dustrial revolution will begin along our South Coast.