TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

1) The states should pursue an ambitious emissions reduction policy and go beyond the modeling scenarios presented.
2) The states should center their framework and investment strategies on equity of process and outcome to ensure emissions reductions are specifically targeted in the communities most impacted by the effects of pollution and climate change. The framework should do more to center the needs and voices of frontline communities, including making sure that the impacts of the framework do not further harm low-income people and communities of color with a regressive financial instrument. The framework should also include requirements around ethical sourcing and supply chain transparency for producing the solar panels powering clean energy and to build batteries for electric vehicles, especially to prevent the continuation of human and environmental abuses in mines (https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/sep/05/most-renewable-energy-companies-claims-mines).

Transportation is the number one source of climate pollution in the United States. That means it's time to totally reimagine the way that we transport people and goods.

I live right next the the Ed Koch 59th St Bridge in Manhattan and see daily the number of single driver vehicles entering a city that is frequently gridlocked throughout the business day. My wife and I cough when exiting the building due to car fumes and we can never open our windows due to the soot and chemicals emitted from internal combustion engines.

This is simply not sustainable and the region needs bold solutions. I have a family member who commutes through the Hudson Train tunnels and faces multiple delays because of aging infrastructure, the third Hudson rail tunnel should have started years ago and not treated as a political piggy bank/football.

The transportation plan MUST cut harmful transformation pollution at scale - to avoid climate crisis and an increased burden on our health care system. Solutions should include:

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

Thank you for allowing me to comment.

I strongly support the Transportation and Climate Initiative as we need to do as much as possible to shift now to a low or zero carbon emission transportation system.

MASSACHUSETTS is not California !!! The working poor cannot afford another tax. We pay enough. If this state needs more money for hack jobs, get it from some else. Try cutting some of the overpaid government bureaucrats. Not everybody can drive a bike to work.

Ensure environmental sustainability for future generations through mass transit efficiencies. The interstate highways, railroads, subways and bus services must all be upgraded to meet the challenges of reducing CO2 emissions and climate change.

“…design a regional low-carbon transportation policy proposal that would cap and reduce carbon emissions from the combustion of transportation fuels through a cap-and-invest program or other pricing mechanism… [and]… to complete the policy development process within one year, after which each jurisdiction will decide whether to adopt and implement the policy.”

Who collects and decides how to employ the collected funds? This could easily be or devolve into just another layer of misappropriated bureaucracy.

A well designed cap and invest program, like a strong TCI, is needed to ensure emissions reductions in the transportation system and will ensure cooperation between all the states in this region to achieve neccessary emissions reductions, and enable these states to direct revenues raised from the program to serve the unique transportation needs of their residents. For example, by designing programs and solutions that serve both rural, urban, and sub-urban regions, which is both possible and essential. The impacts of climate change represent an urgent threat to communities, our economy, public health and people’s quality of life. To stop and reverse these trends, we must reduce emissions in the Transportation sector which generates most of the GHG emissions. TCI offers the best opportunity at this important moment for the Northeast to act collectively to improve mobility and make meaningful reductions in carbon pollution at a regional scale. A comprehensive approach like cap and invest can improve equity by helping to make clean, efficient, cost effective transportation available to everyone.

Not interested. No thanks. Will vote against any attempt to add these kind of taxes, and those who support them.