View Public Input on TCI-P

I strongly support the TCI-P for Virginia. I particularly support it in view of the fact that the Biden administration is now working to update transportation and other infrastructure with an intent to mitigate Climate Change. We are in the midst of a crucial paradigm shift and the stronger the partnership working through that change, the better. Virginia needs a TCI-P Model Rule to make sure that overburdened and underserved communities in Virginia receive an appropriate share of investments from the program.

I strongly support the TCI-P Model Rule as an essential next step on the road to decarbonization.
A 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirms that meeting the Paris Agreement's 1.5-degree target will require cutting GHG emissions roughly in half by 2030, and achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Achieving these reductions will be challenging. A recent forecast from the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization finds "a 20% chance that global temperatures will be 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) higher than the pre-industrial average in at least one year between 2020 and 2024."
We simply no longer have the luxury of time. I respectfully encourage adoption of the TCI-P Model Rule now to ensure durable, sustained, and necessary reductions in GHG pollution. Thank you.

Very important to invest in cleaner, more equitable and resilient transportation system NOW.

I call for the TCI-P Model Rule to include:
(1) a minimum investment amount to ensure overburdened and underserved communities in Virginia receive a greater-then-proportional share of investments from the program,
(2) integration of air quality commitments across Virginia, and
(3) robust empowerment of Virginia's Equity Advisory Body.

Rural areas continue to lack funding for transportation and the county in which I live, Augusta, is a prime example.

Emissions, from a wide variety of vehicles which account for nearly half of Virginia's carbon output, are a huge driver of climate change, while also emitting toxic air pollution that falls disproportionately on low-income populations and communities of color.

The Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P) is a positive and welcome step forward to addressing this major source of pollution. The program will spur needed investments in a modern, sustainable transportation system. These investments could put more electric vehicles on the road in Virginia along with equitably distributed charging infrastructure across the state.

The TCI-P also presents the opportunity to direct investments in a cleaner transportation system in the communities that have suffered the most from vehicle pollution. While the model rule calls for at least 35 percent of TCI proceeds to go toward frontline, impacted communities, here in Virginia I would hope we go above and beyond that benchmark to at least 50% of TCI revenue in programs and infrastructure that will lower this disproportionate pollution burden.

It is my hope, as well as my plea, that this important framework moves forward for the good of our climate, our health and our future.

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.

There is NOTHING else more important than protecting the air that we breathe and the planet on which we reside. Human beings can change, but to do so, we must put aside greed and selfishness, and make solid changes that protect the Earth and all its inhabitants, great and small. In other words, we must EVOLVE. Transportation must change. Fossil fuels are endangering our welfare, our air, and our lands. We need clean cars, we need better public transportation, we need to get dirty automobiles/trucks off the roads, and increase investments in an equitable, cleaner, and more resilient transportation system. The transportation sector accounts for HALF of Virginia’s carbon footprint, making it our largest contributor by far to climate change, thus, here is where we must begin to change. I hope that the human race is smart enough to act on this. This is our future.