TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Hello:
We are writing to urge Maryland to join the regional transportation climate initiative and to further urge Maryland to commit to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by 60% over its 2006 emissions by 2030. This is the minimum Maryland must achieve in order to avert a climate disaster. A regional initiative is a sound way to move forward with achieving that objective and can be modeled after the useful Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Our aim should be to have 3% of Maryland vehicles be electric (with the power to run them be 100% renewable) by the end of 2020, and grow that to 6% in 2021, etc., so that by 2050 we are 100% non-fossil fuel vehicles. This transition will be voluntary but driven by putting a realistic price on the true social cost of burning carbon fuels. We cannot afford to wait for a last-minute awakening or technological breakthrough in the year 2049, we must advance now with what is currently available, trusting that this will spur the future necessary advances.

Therefore, I urge you to put in place sufficient incentives to get the 3% buy-in needed for next year. The cap-and-invest fee rate for 2020 should be gauged so that it provides the funding for this incentive. The 2021 fee should then be set to adequately fund the incentive needed to reach 6% clean vehicles by end of 2021, etc. We need to treat climate change like cancer (an implacable enemy) and not expect it to go away on its own.

This is not a pipe dream. We made our house energy-efficient, so our solar panels run the entire house (heat, AC, well, hot water, cooking) PLUS enough surplus electricity for 20,000 miles of driving in our electric car. AND we are saving money in the long run.

Two things discourage the average homeowner from taking this plunge: reluctance to go into short-term debt for promised long-term gain, and seeing the transition as too complex. Other than the scarcity of public EV charging (which is RAPIDLY improving), we found it a surprisingly comfortable transition. Please consider offering more than just financial incentive; streamlining and normalizing the process and offering guarantees/insurance will go a long way toward pulling in the crucial early adopters.

Thanks for listening. Peter Yungbluth

We would love to help you deliver the Next Generation of Infrastructure in the middle of our $4 Trillion U.S.-Canada-Africa-Global ecosystem - eliminate traffic congestion, a $43B/year Northeast ROI, Radicaally reduce carbon, and delier a 400% ROI in a Next Gen P4 Finance model.

Our Tower-based design can deliver a triple return for Transit, 5G Communications, and Power T&D – tying in all the renewable sources and making the Power Grid MUCH more Resilient. This is the BIG breakthrough needed (as pointed out by Bill Gates and Breakthrough Energy) to allow us to supply the power grid with clean energy even during windless days, cloudy weather, and nighttime.

More than 40% of all carbon emissions come from the transportation sector and our iSAIL Energy-Fin-Transit can do root-cause fixes while making the U.S. a leader in Climate Change Resiliency and Carbon Reduction …….. iSAIL Energy-Fin-Transit is Towers, Guides and Pods that Fly for 80-100mph intracity/250 mph intercity at the cost of asphalt, $2M-3M/mile and 1/100th the cost of even light rail that can $250M/mile, $1B/mile for hyperloop (IF it works) and up to $5B/mile for heavy rail. iSAIL is based on decades of R&D at DARPA, NASA and MIT with AI proven to work where other methods failed. iSAIL Transit will open up a whole new world of urban-rural and land use optimization, turn commutes and freight delivery from hours to minutes, and Radically Reduce GHG emissions.

Our public–private framework enables a New Financial Model with private investors who are patient and risk tolerant, global corporations, and financial institutions with the capital necessary to finance the world’s largest infrastructure projects as we fill the $90 trillion global void and deliver the 400% return.

With humanity in the “race of our lives,” sea level rise accelerating faster than thought (The Guardian, Feb 3, 2020), together, we can deliver the Breakthrough solutions needed at 1/100th the cost of “dinosaur infrastructure” and deliver the URGENT and Bold Solutions to Climate Change the world is looking for, fill voids in the $90 Trillion infrastructure market, minimize the financial burden, especially in developing countries, maximize Revenue to municipalities, and set the Gold Standard for Resilient Transit, Cities, and world infrastructure.

Can you please let me know if we could schedule some time in the next few days to discuss how, together, we can accelerate delivery for ambitious carbon neutral goal? ….. And fix (much of) the brokenness, that will accelerate with the looming global recession?

Thank you very much!
Joe

Joseph Zagrobelny
Founder & CEO, Nine-AI | www.nine-ai.com | M: 781.825.3267 | joseph@nine-ai.com

Please reduce greenhouse gases coming from vehicles by formally joining the regional plan to reduce emissions. Ensure that the forthcoming plan prioritizes clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution and providing for the transportation needs of the poorest among us.
I am please that this is a bipartisan project, moving us forward even if the federal government will only move backward.

Please be sure to address emissions of all municipal vehicles especially to include school buses and emergency services’ vehicles.

You can't squeeze blood from a stone, but that never stops the legislature from trying to figure out a way!!! Mass government is overpaid, over bloated, over nepotized and GREEDY!!! If you would stop overpaying these nepotized jobs and WASTING tax payer money, there would be plenty to get things done. You legislators should be ASHAMED for the NON-STOP ways you try to squeeze us unfortunate residents of this WASTEFULL and CORRUPT state!

Climate change due to human caused greenhouse gas emissions is an existential threat. Transportation is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in Massachusetts and across the world. Transitioning to all-electric vehicles is a relatively easy and effective way to move us toward a carbon neutral environment. This transition will have the added benefit of cleaner air and lower health costs related to respiratory diseases. The government needs to help not only by improving public transportation, which should be 'green', but also by incentivizing electric vehicle purchases by individuals. The latter requires charging stations on all highways that ultimately will replace gasoline stations. In the short term, it also requires financial incentives, including rebates for electric vehicle purchase and home charging station installations. The federal government is moving us backwards. The states need to shoulder the burden of moving us forward for the sake of current and future generations. The eastern states can and should sent an example for the rest of the country.

This plan would hurt the rural elderly population in Maine as the price of energy for transportation and heat would be driven to unaffordable levels. Current energy alternatives such as wind and solar, and electric vehicles create a net increase in carbon footprint because the resources to mine and produce windmills, batteries, etc., uses more energy than is saved over the lifetime of the current technologies. This plan is bad for Maine residents.

The New York Public Transit Association (NYPTA), which represents more than 100 transit systems throughout New York State, supports the goals of the TCI effort. The development of a cap and invest program is both consistent with the environmental and energy objectives of public transportation and is a way to increase funding for public transportation to transition to low emission transit vehicles and to expand transit service.

NYPTA offers the following comments on the TCI draft MOU:
• NYPTA supports the goals and objectives of the TCI cap and invest program proposal.
• NYPTA supports the intent to invest program proceeds in low carbon and clean mobility options in urban, suburban and rural communities, and specifically in public transportation.
• Greater investment to modernize and enhance public transportation throughout New York State supports the goals of the TCI program, particularly greater investment to support the transition to cleaner public transportation infrastructure and to increase public transportation services.
• In developing the program, TCI should consider the impact on transit systems in small communities and rural areas, which have fewer resources and where the transition to clean fuel vehicles may take much longer. The increased cost of diesel fuel and gasoline to transit systems in these areas that will result from the cap and invest program will be burdensome and could negatively impact the continuation of these essential transit services to customers who need them most. An exemption (or credit) from any increase in fuel prices for public transportation services resulting from a carbon cap should be considered in designing the program in order to mitigate any negative financial impacts.
• NYPTA strongly supports returning the proceeds generated from the cap and invest program to the state where they are generated or earned.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft MOU.