View Public Input on TCI-P

If the level of carbon pumped into our air by fossil fuels is not curtailed greatly and very soon, there will be no air left for us, as well as lots of other living beings to breath.

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. See Bill McKibben, "How 1.5 Degrees Became the Key to Climate Progress," New Yorker (April 21, 2021), at https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/how-15-degrees-became-the-key-to-climate-progress.

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." See Nadine Achoui-Lesage & Frank Jordans, "UN: World could hit 1.5-degree warming threshold by 2024, " Associated Press (July 9, 2020) at https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/world-hit-15-degree-warming-threshold-years-71687896.

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.

Virginia should join the TCI-P, we need energy independence and security and we can do that no better than moving to electric cars and driving them on clean domestic fuel. What’s more, we need to mind the Atmosphere so our power should be clean for our cars and our houses. This is why we need to be part of the TCI-P.

The Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P) is a huge step for Virginia in building a sustainable life for my grandchildren. Without it they face a most difficult future. Please prioritize.

I support a strong TCI-P Model Rule that (1) ensures meaningful climate action to address Virginia's largest driver of our climate crisis, (2) directs significant investments to correcting historic inequities in overburdened and underserved communities; and (3) affords Virginia the opportunity for a cleaner, healthier transportation system.

Lowering carbon emissions in the transportation sector is essential. I strongly support the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program and the proposed model rule. The prospect of being able, through this model rule, to have the cost of fuels include their pollution costs while generating needed income for alternative fuel infrastructure is a win-win. I strongly support this model rule as a way to accelerate our transition to a cleaner future.

I am writing in broad support of this model rule with a few specific recommendations for incorporation. Overall, TCI represents an important step for our commonwealth to be better regional stewards of our climate and receive financial benefits. Especially by adopting TCI and incorporating strong equity provisions, we can ensure that emissions are reduced and communities that are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis receive disproportionate health and financial benefits.

Specific recommendations:
Air quality monitoring commitments should be integrated into the Model Rule.
Each Participating Jurisdiction should establish air pollution reduction targets.
Establish an equity advisory board
TCI-P decision-makers must attribute the same weight and urgency to comments from
overburdened and underserved communities discussing impacts of TCI-P on those communities
as they do to comments regarding technical program design.

I believe that it is necessary for loss of the past so that we can reduce the carbon footprint that results from overuse of vehicles including tractor trailers. I think that Amazon is doing the right thing by creating more electric vehicles including tractor trailer electric vehicles in order to reduce the carbon footprint which is a result of using diesel fuel powered vehicles.

We support the TCI-P Rule giving more support to challenged and undeserved communities and to environmental safeguards.