TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

I am writing to ask for the following:

-A cap on carbon emissions of at least 25% by 2032
-An increase in the minimum investment in overburdened and underserved communities (>35%)
-Request that investments be put towards active transportation like better sidewalks, bicycle infrastructure, and high quality public transit

I am a former wind energy engineer. I am very concerned that we reduce carbon emissions as soon and as fast as possible.
1. Do a carbon tax or fee or cap and invest. Do NOT propose a cap and trade program!
2. Collected fees must be returned to citizens - to ensure strong public support
3. Make sure the dividends are structured to make sure low income communities are not unduly burdened by the transition to a green economy
4. Make sure that the tax or cap is adjusted each year to reduce emissions to zero by 2050
5. Provide rigorous independent studies to document the expected efficacy and possible down sides of the proposed plan

We have no time to lose! Any proposal must meet these requirements as it needs to be publicly acceptable and effectively reduce emissions!

In recent weeks, Gov. Mills made the bold proclamation “Maine will be carbon-neutral by 2045.” “And we mean it,” she said.

We wish to congratulate the governor for her leadership on an issue with so much impact on the lives of every Mainer, and for inviting stakeholders to recommend innovative strategies to reach this ambitious goal.

When Governor Mills made that statement at the inaugural meeting of the Maine Climate Council last week, the Maine Rail Transit Coalition -- a longtime group of business and political leaders in Portland, Lewiston, Auburn -- launched into action. The MRTC lends its support to the Climate Council, and we are offering our considered advice toward making Maine carbon-neutral by 2045.

MRTC believes Maine can get fully halfway to its goal of 2045 carbon neutrality utilizing a “silver bullet” solution that also provides economic development, workforce housing, tax relief and quality of life benefits beyond the carbon dividend.

That solution is passenger rail, and Maine has a shovel-ready project to link Portland to Lewiston in three to five years. Brunswick, Freeport, Portland have all received the benefits of passenger rail. The communities of Western Maine, along with Rockland, Westbrook, Auburn and Lewiston have all been planning for rail over the last decade. Lewiston/Auburn is next.

The concept for a modern, hybrid-electric commuter passenger train service connecting Maine’s two largest urban centers is based on a plan developed by the Maine Department of Transportation 12 to 15 years ago. It is driven by the demographics and relationships between Lewiston and Portland. This is a plan to move a lot of people on an existing, state-owned, but unused rail line.

There may be a perceived conflict between using the rail for freight. However, at this moment in time we need to move passengers on rail and off the roads to address the issues of congestion, parking, housing and climate. Passenger rail is far more effective, and this can be done. The Grand Trunk railroad route is the solution we are pursuing. This state-owned rail, developed in conjunction with private capital, is the best way to work for everybody.

The critical framework for this is complete. We simply want the state to adhere to plan they devised 15 years ago and updated this year that offers benefits to an economic corridor that encompasses the largest population in the state.

This project has the full backing of the L/A Metro Chamber, the cities of Lewiston and Auburn, a group of 13 towns through Oxford and Androscoggin counites and a large segment of the population of Portland. Maine does not have to wait another 15 years to do a plan that is already good. The work to move forward is done, this can be implemented very quickly to the benefit of a large area of the state.

Linking the downtown centers of Maine’s two largest cities to create a multimodal transit link -- reaching from Casco Bay and downtown Portland to Lewiston-Auburn, setting the stage for a Boston-to-Montreal regional super route -- makes sense.

The route will launch high-frequency, regularly scheduled hybrid-electric passenger trains from Portland Ocean Gateway in the Old Port, along the Eastern Promenade and crossing the B’n’M Bean swing bridge, with stops in Falmouth, Yarmouth, Cumberland, New Gloucester/Pineland Farms, Auburn and Downtown Lewiston.

This infrastructure -- an engineering marvel -- is still in place, publicly owned, and waiting for an investment to provide mobility, economic development, and housing and employment access, and away from carbon-heavy transportation modes that require more and more upkeep.

Everyone agrees roads have always dominated the transportation discussion -- and spending -- in Maine, and that we have thus far committed ourselves to an almost exclusively pavement-based transportation system here. Pavement-based is emissions-heavy, resource extractive, costly to build and rebuild, inefficient for moving people, pollutes waterways, diverts resources from renewables, drives demand for fossil fuels and thus is an untenable path under the bold new Mills carbon initiative. Rail has been a largely unconsidered option in Maine’s new climate reality.

If given the chance, passenger rail advocates will tell a very compelling story about the benefits of rail for Maine, at a very standard cost in terms of bold public infrastructure investment. We will talk about a truly public-private partnership that leverages developers and investors, not public funds. We will talk about making the project long-term sustainable with a bold state bonding program. And we will talk about the vast social costs -- including climate change -- that Maine will avoid by pursuing rail-centered economic development.

Carbon reduction is but one improvement. Workforce housing, clustered business development, traffic reduction and tourism innovation are all within our grasp if we can escape the car culture that’s harming the climate.

Instead of more and more hot top maintenance paving, suburban strip malls and dying Big Box retail shells along with highway budgets that soak up 90% of the federal infrastructure allocation to Maine, we can have a different future.

But only if rail has a seat at the climate table.
Because we will never pave our way out of the climate crisis. And only if you all have a seat with us. Join us. It is Train Time.
Thank you

Anthony J. Donovan
Maine Rail Transit Coalition
Mailto: MELIKESRAIL@GMail.com
www.mainetrain.org

I WOULD SAY TAKE THIS TAX AND PUT IT WHERE YOUR SOLAR PANELS SHINE.THE PEOPLE WHO ARE PLANNING ON ENACTING THIS TAX ARE NOTHING MORE THAN THIEVES TRYING TO TAKE MORE OF OUR HARD EARNED DOLLARS AWAY. WHY AREN'T THEY LOOKING IN TO ALL THE WASTED SPENDING SUCH AS TODAYS FRONT PAGE HERALD STORY ABOUT THE EBT CARD ABUSE? EBT CARDS ARE TURNING UP AT LUXURY HOTELS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY INCLUDING 5 STAR LUXURY HOTELS LIKE THE PRINCEVILLE IN HAWAII? ARE LEGISLATURE AND GOVERNOR ARE A JOKE BUT UNFORTUNATELY THE HONEST HARD WORKIN TAXPAYER THE JOKE IS ON US. THEY DO NOTHING BUT CONTINUALLY TRY AND COME UP WITH NEW WAYS TO SCREW US. THEY SUUUUCK!!

Additionally, call it what you want, but this is another TAX your trying to ram through, not a fee! I'll be voting out all who are for this FEE and will be encouraging everyone I know to vote you all OUT!!

The Northeast region needs to set an overall limit on pollution from transportation through a regional “cap-and-invest” program, similar to the program the region implemented for electricity-related emissions. This program would begin to hold oil companies accountable for their emissions and provide funding for clean mobility for Northeast residents.

This is no longer a luxury — we need to enact bold change.

It is through actions like these that we in the Northeast can show the whole country that we can lead again. We can create a better, cleaner transportation system for Northeast residents through investments in public transportation and new technologies such as electric vehicles.

I am writing to express strong support for the Transportation and Climate Initiative and to urge the adoption of the strongest possible cap on transportation carbon emissions. The climate crisis demands that we take swift, strong action to decarbonize our economy, and with transportation now the number one source of greenhouse gases in the region and around the United States, we need to begin now. I further urge the adoption of a cap with the utmost of integrity. Cost-containment measures should not result in an increase in the overall emissions cap and the use of offsets should be strictly limited to ensure that the program achieves its main mission of promoting cleaner transportation in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Finally, allowance revenue generated under TCI should be reinvested so as to accelerate the transition to a cleaner transportation system. States should not be permitted to use allowance revenues to fill gaps in road spending or to facilitate highway construction.

With sea level rise, increases in extreme precipitation and other impacts of climate change already beginning to appear in our region, we have the opportunity to lead and provide other regions with a shining example of leadership. By adopting a strong regional cap with integrity, and investing revenue from the program into clean transportation services and technologies, the TCI states can demonstrate to the rest of the country and the rest of the world that decarbonizing the transportation sector is possible.

Thank you for trying to address the climate crisis in a bipartisan way by pricing carbon. I hope you will ensure that any carbon price is high enough to create sufficient incentive to reduce carbon levels substantially, and that the policy will have a mechanism for minimizing impacts on low income folks.
Thanks.

Mainers deserve creative new choices and new investments to meet our transportation needs; the one thing we know is that pouring pollution into the atmosphere and sending our hard-earned money out of state for the oil that causes that pollution are NOT the way forward.

If the feds are paralyzed with inaction, we need to do it at the regional level.