TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

You are doing good work on the modeling, thanks! I have misgivings about one particular section- 8% growth in VMT per decade, and would ask you to review that part better. The citation ("state predictions") was pretty vague. Most reading I've seen report that VMT needs to decrease, via walk/bike/bus/rail or density, and surely some TCI returns will be spent on making this happen (much like your concerns for state EV incentives and ZEV mandates being a feed back loop affecting fleet makeup). You should probably include a mechanism for higher share prices to offset lower VMT to maintain level funding for state programs.

Rural Maine is ill-served by public transportation. We have an all-electric car and need more widely spread charging stations. The roads are poorly constructed for bicycle use. There is little bus or train service to small towns from Portland or the Boston area and what is available is so limited that it does not coordinate with air schedules. Climate change is our world's number one problem. We need to address the issues now!

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

In our Urban and Suburban centers there are too many cars and too much pollution. I taught high school students in Philadelphia who had to have their inhalers with them. I volunteer in an ER in Norristown where patients of all ages have breathing difficulties and need breathing treatments. We need to continue to work on lowering smoking, but we also need to make public transportation affordable and convenient. Lowering the levels of CO2 in the air will make breathing easier for all and lower the number of rage-related incidents in traffic-jammed streets. The climate will be closer to the old normal. Seas will stop swallowing shores. We will have more time to relax and enjoy life.

It is vital that our transportation policies reflect the reality of our world. The transportation sector is a major contributor to climate change and to air pollution. There have been many days in southwestern Pennsylvania in the past few weeks with air quality alerts, and vehicles are a significant contributor to that problem. We owe it to our residents in Pennsylvania to solve these problems by taking action on transportation infrastructure and on transportation policies. I, for instance, intend my next vehicle to be a plug-in electric car (I currently drive a hybrid). But, I do worry about the infrastructure that would make that choice easier. Charging stations are few and far between in Pennsylvania. Long distance travel is a problem! I have solar panels on my house, but the electric grid generally in Pennsylvania needs to move faster toward renewable sources and away from fossil fuel generation of electricity so that charging an electric vehicle truly is a environmentally better choice no matter where it is charged. And finally, we need to move away from fuel taxes as the major source of funds for the transportation sector. As electric vehicles become more common (and they will!), revenues from other sources will be needed to support our transportation system. Let's move forward with intention by planning for a new, clean transportation system in Pennsylvania.

Support sustainability regarding the environment and support equality economically.

I am deeply and gravely concerned over this petition. By limiting the amount people will drive you are affecting an entire industry and workforce on the available cars to work on after the industry has already sustained raising workforce costs. We as an industry cannot sustain being attacked on both angles by our own government who is supposed to help foster small business instead of kill it. I voted for a Republican Governor in my state to help protect me from these issues.

The TCI is very important for this state. Maine should use TCI as an opportunity to invest in local transportation solutions that help Maine people get to where they need to go in an affordable way that’s good for our environment. 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. Maine needs an ambitious plan to reduce climate-changing transportation pollution,. Working together with neighboring states makes sense.

The economic benefits could be profound. Maine can see significant economic, health, and environmental benefits by transitioning to cleaner and more efficient transportation options through adoption of TCI. We must address climate change now with workable solutions. TCI is one of them!

Apparently the politicians need a new means to fund the general fund since the 911 funds have been exposed.