Important Update: Town Will Request Solar Case Re-Argument

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA 

May 6th 2026 

RICHMOND -- Members of the Town Council voted during the Executive Session following the May 5 meeting to ask the Rhode Island Supreme Court to grant a re-argument of the Beaver River solar case.  

The court issued a split decision on April 29 in the controversial Beaver River solar development. With Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg retiring and not hearing the case, the four remaining justices issued a 2-2 decision on the challenge to the lower court’s ruling allowing the project to proceed. 

The split decision means that the 2023 ruling of Rhode Island Superior Court Justice Sarah Tafft-Carter ordering the town to approve a special use permit for the solar energy facility court will stand. However, either party can challenge the ruling by requesting a new hearing, or “re-argument,” before a full, five-member Supreme Court. 

If the Supreme Court grants a re-argument, one of the retired Justices could be called back to hear the case, or a new Justice would be seated, bringing the number of Justices to five. 

The Town of Richmond and property owner John Peixinho have invested considerable resources challenging the Superior Court decision. Peixinho has already announced his intention to petition the Court for a re-argument, and on Tuesday, with councilor Michael Colasante opposed, the Town Council voted to do the same.  

Reached Wednesday, Council Vice President Mark Reynolds said, 

“The hope is that we persuade the fifth Justice who will hear the re-argument that our side is right and obviously, the other two [Justices], they don’t have to stick with their vote but we assume that they will, so really, it’s an effort to persuade whoever the fifth Justice is going to be, assuming that the Supreme Court grants re-argument, which they most likely will, because it’s a split, an even split.” 

The petitions must be filed by May 11, and Reynolds said he hoped the Court would hear them before the summer recess. 

“They will take it up during one of their Thursday conferences the Justices have, I think it’s weekly,” he said. “I would expect to hear pretty quickly whether they’re going to hear re-argument. The bigger question is when it will be. Will they wait for a new Justice to be seated, or will they recall a retired Justice? That’s really their discretion. It would be great to have it heard before the end of this term, which is a pretty tight timeline, so it might not happen. It might be early fall.”