TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

We need a plan that holds large transportation polluters accountable for the pollution they create and invests in clean transportation solutions including:

More public transit and electric vehicle infrastructure in rural areas

Expansion of commuter rail, electric vehicles, and streets in the suburbs that are safe, walkable, and bikeable

Sustainable and equitable housing near transit and electric bus fleets in urban communities

It is morally imperative that we transform our transportation system in a way that minimizes (and eventually eliminates completely) our use of fossil fuels as the energy source of our transportation system and move to an energy source that is renewable and sustainable.

Thank you for ready my comments.

As transportation is a primary emitter of fossil fuels, a focus on reducing that is imperative. Localizing economies is a start. Food is a good start to the start. Everyone needs to eat two or three times a day, and food has to get from farm to plate. Human beings do not need bananas from Ecuador or lettuce from California in order to survive! Re-educating people on how to get needed nutrients from things that grow locally can be of enormous help in reducing the hidden costs to the climate. Growing one's own food is best. Ten paces from garden to plate, freshness assured! Next would be a system of community gardens, then farmers markets, then grocery stores carrying local food at prices that reflect its true cost. Adding a carbon quotient to all transported foods would make local foods look a lot better.

Another educational effort could be put into edible weeds, seeds, flowers, and even insects. (80% of the world enjoys insect protein. Why can't we, in the West?) It might make people think twice about spraying dandelions with poison if they knew how nutritious they are. Unsprayed lawns abound in other foods and even medicines that are far more valuable than the aesthetics of a monoculture of Kentucky bluegrass. Think about how many homeowners rake up annoying acorns into garbage bags for the dump, when a couple hundred years ago acorns provided up to 50% of winter calories for some Native American populations. Going back to such useful local foodstuffs can eclipse the need for trucking in food from far away. This educational effort on local foods we already have could be enhanced and encouraged by having community based classes on cooking and preservation.

In Vermont, we have a lot of large lawns that are rarely used except from the seat of a riding mower on weekend afternoons. Grass, a perennial, grows on its own with little input needed. Put grazing animals on those lawns and they get fertilized nicely. Hoof action makes pockets that hold water rather than letting it run off. Hoof action also presses manure into the soil, sequestering that carbon. Grassland thus grows protein in the form of meat--a sustainable form. At the same time, any form of factory farming of animals should be transitioned as quickly as possible to grass-based. Grain is not a natural part of any ruminant's diet! They'll eat it, but it's bad for them in the long run. Valuable corn and soybean fields could then be converted to carbon-sequestering grasslands or some form of permaculture including fruit and nut trees, with some open land being kept for annual fruits and vegetables as needed.

Thanks for listening.

New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut have already stepped away from this horrible deal. Mainers shouldn't be forced to pay higher prices just to drive and survive. Gov. Mills, stop the secret meetings with no recordings!

I am a resident of Lexington, and I do volunteer work educating and lobbying on climate action for Citizen' Climate Lobby and the Massachusetts Campaign for a Clean Energy Future. I am pleased that the Governor is pursuing a multi-state transportation and climate initiative. For the program to be effective, it needs to include a price on carbon that is high enough to reduce emissions, and uses (or rebates) the funds raised in a way that protects low and moderate income residents.

100% of everyone's efforts is necessary to divert the remaining climate crises. This isn't something we should think about. This isn't something we should consider or deliberate on. This is something that is 100% mandatory if we are to save our own species from the most devastating and miserable future imaginable. Those that survive climate caused sickness, war, and natural disasters will live in environmental poverty and extreme stress. I don't have children because our future is too bleak to have them. Near eight billion makes my own children nothing special. Not at all. Just more stress on an overcrowded, gobbled up, desolate planet with a bleak and terrifying future. You MUST go 100% fossil free. There's really no more time or options. That's really it.

I feel this will produce a beurocracy that will tax and spend money on something that will do a absolutely nothing to reduce carbon emissions. I do not want the State of Maine to have anything to do with this money grab scam.

I live in Bethany Beach, DE and strongly believe that we need to take action to begin to counter the devastating impact of humanity on the environment. This is one step in the right direction. Please set a policy that has a price high enough to effectively reduce emissions according to the latest science. Please design a policy that has a strong component of social equity and doesn’t hurt rural, low/moderate income people. Thank you for the bipartisan nature of this project as we must work together as hard to fix as we did to break the environment.

You people want these taxes to create more jobs and profits for MORE political hacks. YOU ARE KILLING THE GOLDEN GOOSE!

I used public transportation (regional rail) while I worked in Philadelphia for 30 years. I want to use regional rail now but the train doesn’t run frequently enough for non-rush hour activities. I can drive but WHY? I care about the air and climate I leave for my grandchildren and my fellow Americans and the world. It’s not that hard to do if you have a collective will to be forward thinking.