TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

We are at an inflection point with respect to human being's impact on climate change and creating a world vastly different for our grandchildren, regardless of where we live or how long our current commute may be. This program offers a sustainable funding source that will help initiate change in Maine's urban and rural transportation systems, including better access to affordable, clean transportation. We know the status quo is already unsustainable and gas prices are inherently volatile, costing each of us an increasingly large percentage of our take home wages (unless you drive electric). That will only change if we invest in a future of better transit choices and cleaner modes of transportation. Change in this area is critical. We need to think beyond the status quo and create funding options that reduce our oil dependency, reduce emissions, and reduce, utlimately, the economic costs of transportation. Thanks for the courage to present a big idea when it is most needed. Maine's current path is actually the most expensive one we can go down, for everyone.

Mass transit reduces poverty and takes cars off of the road. I live in a state capital and do not have a public transit option to reach a major airport 25 miles away. I live 30 miles from the US Capital, in a state capital with no public transportation between them. This is ridiculous. Maryland’s Governor Hogan wants to add highway lanes in a nod to remarkable misunderstanding of traffic congestion.

Transportation sector hydrocarbon reduction to date has been based on a lack of a mass-produced electric vehicles of the types people need. The lack of vehicles is not because no one wants the vehicles or because the manufacturers do not want to produce them, but because the battery technology is still immature and the supply chains for mass-produced batteries and rare earth permanent magnets is early stage development. The cost-benefit for consumers even with tax incentives is not there because the vehicles are more expensive for less capability. All major manufacturers have announced $300 billion in electric vehicle manufacturing investments over the next few years with large scale production starting in 2021. That said it will take until 2030 for mass production to be fully realized. Consumers and businesses with a new ICE technology vehicle are not going to run out and buy a new electric car until their current ICE vehicle reaches its end of useful service (8-10 years). At that point consumers will have a choice and will make the choice based on the advantages of the future EV's, not because of TCI. TCI does not help us move forward only adds consumer costs. TCI does nothing to solve that and all rigorous studies show that it does not reduce hydrocarbon consumption, does nothing to enhance transportation sector electrification and adds no funding for desperately needed highway repairs.
https://ljfo.vermont.gov/assets/Uploads/a5e545b014/rap-carbon-management-VT-JFO-february-2019-updated.pdf
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy18osti/71500.pdf
https://graphics.reuters.com/AUTOS-INVESTMENT-ELECTRIC/010081ZB3HD/index.html
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2019
https://www.jpmorgan.com/global/research/electric-vehicles
https://www.eei.org/resourcesandmedia/newsroom/Pages/Press%20Releaseshttps://www.eei.org/resourcesandmedia/newsroom/Pages/Press%20Releases/EEI%20Celebrates%201%20Million%20Electric%20Vehicles%20on%20U-S-%20Roads.aspx
https://www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2019/12/draft_2020_transpElectr_fx.pdf

Partnership for the Public Good is a community-based think tank with over 290 partner organizations. Many of our partners are concerned with both ecological justice and transportation issues. We have released several reports on these issues. Buffalo faces significant challenges when it comes to public transit. Over 50,000 households in our region lack access to a car, yet over half of the region's jobs are NOT accessible by public transit. Improving public transit in our region is imperative for promoting economic development, reducing racial disparities, fighting poverty, and decreasing air pollution. As part of your planning process, we implore you to incorporate a more robust busing system (more buses, more routes, and more frequency) as well a suggestion to expand the light rail through the east side of Buffalo to the airport. This addition will take advantage of existing public right of ways to make our public transit more accessible and efficient. We also ask that New York State reexamine its funding structure to more equitably fund WNY public transit.

This is a tax on the people and MUST be put to vote. Do you recall "For the People, By the People"?

Raising the tax on gasoline is not right, and will do nothing but burden Mainers with even more taxes. Meanwhile you want to give money to people for driving electric cars, who only wealthy people or people who have good credit and a good paying job could ever own. There is a broken or non existent public transportation system in maine. People can’t help but to use their cars to get to where they need to go, more than half of them blue booking for under $5000.