If you’re trying to figure out what issue is about to eat up oxygen at the Rhode Island State House this year, here’s a clue: Governor Dan McKee is doing an affordability road show, the electric company is mounting a public defense, and environmental advocates are gearing up to push back.

McKee is scheduled to sign an executive order this morning that his office says will support “efforts to seek $1 billion in energy relief over the next five years while maintaining an affordable path to climate goals.”

Meanwhile, Rhode Island Energy is bolstering its lobbyist roster at the State House, hiring George Zainyeh at $5,000 a month. He joins former House speaker Bill Murphy and communications whiz Patti Doyle, who also each make $5,000 a month, according to state lobbying records. The company is also ramping up its public-facing strategy, with President Greg Cornett writing an op-ed for The Globe and making the talk-radio rounds in recent weeks.

The bigger picture: All the energy seems to be going into energy this year.

Ratepayers are fed up with high energy costs, and McKee is making the issue a central part of his reelection campaign this year, but environmental groups are warning that he shouldn’t make changes at the expense of the state’s ambitious climate change goals.

“Governor McKee continues to pin the blame of escalating energy prices on the very tools that serve to protect Rhode Island ratepayers from volatile supply costs and rising delivery costs,” Emily Koo, who runs the Rhode Island branch of the Acadia Center, said in a statement. “It is a glaring omission to report the costs of clean energy while ignoring all of the cost savings, one of the primary reasons for undertaking the energy transition in the first place.”

Most of the lawmakers who helped pass Rhode Island’s Act on Climate in 2021 are still in office, so there may not be much of an appetite for rolling back the state’s goals. Then again, it’s an election year, so compromise may be more popular than conflict.

Correction: In Friday's Rhode Map, I wrote that Mike Silvia works for Duffy & Shanley. Silvia actually works for SuperAssociates.