TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Lack of grassroots community engagement, on a cap & trade program. The farce of using Prince George's County Ej Commission as any sort of representation of community engagement and/or participation.

We have to come to terms with the fact that human beings are destroying our planet. We must start by seriously reducing our dependence on and use of fossil fuels.

We as a region, and indeed, the nation as a whole need to more quickly combat the dangers of climate change. Here in NYC, too many are stuck taking forever to commute on polluting, traffic creating busses because the subway is overcrowded and can't get you everywhere. Our state needs these cap and trade reinvestments in our transit infrastructure to curb these dangerous emmissions, improving commute times and air quality. Therefore NYS should formally join this bipartisan plan. Thank you!

Through my work at 350 Vermont, with the Vermont Wilderness School, and as a parent of young children, I am committed to cleaner transportation future for Vermont. Vermont’s largest source of carbon pollution comes from the transportation sector, accounting for 44% of Vermont’s climate pollution. That is unacceptable.

I urge Vermont to participate in the Transportation and Climate Initiative so that all Vermonters, including my young children, live in a world where they do not have to choose between being able to get where they need to go and polluting the planet irreparably.

Vermont, like other states, desperately needs additional funding to create innovative, equitable transportation options for all, including seniors/people with disabilities/people with low incomes, for whom transportation costs and accessibility are an added burden. TCI can provide this support.

As someone who works with rural Vermonters, I see the extreme need for increased accessibility. We might be a rural state, but that is no excuse for expecting people to rely solely on personal vehicles, which are costly to operate and have limitations for many, in addition to being high polluters. A lack of reliable transportation options can have a negative effect on entire rural towns.

As you know, Vermont’s participation in a cap and invest program is not new. Under Governor Jim Douglas, Vermont joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in 2008. This cap and invest program covers the electric sector in the Northeast, and it has proven very successful, reducing consumer costs and carbon pollution from the power sector by 40%.

Vermont has strategically invested the revenues raised from RGGI, directing the $2 million annually into weatherization programs that help Vermonters stop wasting energy and save money. We know this type of project works — there is no excuse not to adopt TCI as well.

TCI provides the opportunity to tackle the biggest problem of our day — climate change — by reducing emissions in our state’s most carbon-intensive sector, while diverting funds into much-needed transportation infrastructure that will benefit all.

We can either seize this opportunity to make monumental progress and have a chance to prosper in a clean energy future, or accept a status quo that is only becoming more and more difficult for Vermonters and more harmful to our environment.

I urge Vermont to formally join TCI so we can create a clean energy future that works better for everyone, especially our most vulnerable. Thank you for the work you’ve done so far to advance TCI across the region.

This initiative is very concerning to me. What those behind this don’t understand is that many people in rural areas throughout Maine have no choice but to drive trucks and SUVs so we can get to work in any conditions. Additionally, we can’t afford to drive less - we simply drive to and from work each day and many have at least a 30 minute commute - it’s just the way things are in rural areas. This will have extreme negative effects and will NOT simply make people drive “cleaner and greener” vehicles. The people who can afford to and desire to drive cleaner vehicles already do so. All this change would do is drive up costs (on everything) and drive people OUT of our great state. But I bet the law makers actually know this and are just trying to find a way to get more money out of the people. This isn’t really about the climate..

I encourage the development of pollution free energy for public transportation. Locally generated green energy will reduce air pollution, and will be less vulnerable to attacks from those who would harm our infrastructure.

No engineer could have ever agreed to this plan. Massachusetts currently creates only 1.3% of the nations greenhouse gasses. You can financially punish the citizens to the point we turn off our heat and stop driving our cars and you could never change the temperature of the earth from Massachusetts. Elected officials no longer represent we the people. This fee will disproportionately impact low income people that must commute off Cape Cod each day. And for what? So Charlie Baker earns a green award?