View Public Input on TCI-P

Please see Green For All's attached public comment in response to the Draft TCI-P Model Rule and Update on Public Engagement Planning documents. Thank you for your consideration.

Please see the attached letter from Transit Forward Philadelphia, Pittsburghers for Public Transit, RACCE, CHISPA Maryland, Transport Hartford Academy, Make the Road Connecticut, Clean Air Council, and Dream Corps Green For All in response to the Model Implementation Plan, Strategies for Regional Collaboration, and Draft Framework on Public Engagement.

Please implement Transportation & Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P) in Vermont.

Say "NO" to Virginia joining the TCI. The cost is too high at the gas pump, and there are other, better ways to protect the climate.

Individual choices for driving electric are good, and states need to work together to make bigger, better choices for our collective future. The electrification of transportation in the TCI region and the pricing of pollution will go a long way to cleaning the air and combating climate change.

EDF respectfully offers the attached comments and recommendations for consideration to the Draft Model Rule of the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program. We appreciate your consideration of these comments.

I urgently believe that the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P) is necessary to address our key regional sources of pollution. With each governance innovation, we must better steer our public and private investments to creating an efficient, better, truly sustainable transportation systems.

As our region's transportation emissions are a huge contributor in our changing climate, we can address nearly one-half of Virginia’s carbon output. We need environmental justice principles embodied in strategies that address toxic air pollution that falls disproportionately on low-income or politically disconnected populations.

We must use the funding provided by the TCI-P to help with ongoing efforts to put more electric vehicles and infrastructure in play in Virginia along with equitably distributed charging stations across the state.

We must target a higher attainable goal, beyond the model rule - for at least 35 percent of TCI proceeds going toward frontline, impacted communities. The TCI-P can drive investments in a cleaner transportation system in the populations and communities that have suffered the most from vehicle pollution. Let's invest at least half of our TCI revenue in programs and infrastructure that will truly lower the disproportionate pollution burdens on our people.

Thank you for soliciting and analyzing these comments and engaging the public on this critical measure. We must meet the moment for our collective health and future.

This is not a tax on gasoline and diesel! This is a more accurate accounting of the true cost of gasoline and diesel. It is an elimination of the free-ride subsidy gasoline and diesel have enjoyed for years. It’s time for us to stop pretending that using gasoline and diesel has no cost: it does.

The funds collected don’t just vanish, either. The TCI proposal directs them in a productive way to clean up the transportation system, which benefits us all, and will begin paying off immediately.

Gas prices will not skyrocket! Any increases the distributors pass on will be well below the normal fluctuations we all live with. Even setting the highest cap with 25% reduction will be almost unnoticeable at the pump. Distributors will continue to compete with each other on price. Let the free market rule!

Some say this will have a negligible effect on reducing emissions. This argument assumes a baseline that already has a huge uptake of EV’s, which we are no where close to yet. We should think of TCI as insurance against the mischief and backsliding supported by fossil fuel interests.

It’s time to start being responsible for our actions.

Enacting strong and robust TCI rules is critically important. This is an important tool in needed efforts to electrify all forms of ground transportation. Our fossil fuel vehicles are killing us in so many ways and this needs to stop. Climate change, poor air quality, and added healthcare costs, are just a few reasons why we need to act. TCI can ensure that we address these issues along with correcting historic inequities in overburdened and underserved communities. Also, our addiction to fossil fuels often provides funding to terrorist groups and unfriendly governments around the world. Any one of these reasons is enough to support vehicle electrification and TCI, added together, they make this an imperative with benefits for everyone.