TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Please do not include road widening projects in the transportation bill. The focus should be on public transit and making towns more walkable and bike-able. We need to take real and meaningful steps to combat the climate crisis and putting more cars on the road is not a means to that end. Thank you for all your hard work on this and other issues.

Attempting to limit fuel sales will have a disproportionate impact on poor to low income working families and retirees on fixed inncomes. They are the ones living paycheck to paycheck with barely enough money to pay their bills. There will be very little environmental benefit from the proposed actions as India and China are building coal fired power plants throughout east Asia at a pace that will wipe out any reduction in carbon emissions resulting from the reduction in fuel consumption. Thus, this proposed program is nothing more than a "feel good" initiative that will do irreparable harm to good hard working Americans for temporary benefit at best.

Scientists are screaming at the top of their lungs that we are in a crisis.

A sample of recent headlines:
“Climate change: Oceans running out of oxygen as temperatures rise”
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50690995?fbclid=IwAR2Fl4Xz8w3zJXs_lN9Pk5RYzwRHZLAy6_s_E7Aqx6xjPIvrOEdkoaNTF70)

“U.N. chief warns of ‘point of no return’ on climate change”
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/01/climate-change-point-no-return-074610)

“In bleak report, U.N. says drastic action is only way to avoid worst effects of climate change”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/11/26/bleak-report-un-says-drastic-action-is-only-way-avoid-worst-impacts-climate-change/?fbclid=IwAR3uSyLx-bPcrIrc7CXYsJIiNkOATN6WV0LbqHhiegq0Z1Cjgzcg92B7waY)

“World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency”
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806?fbclid=IwAR0VYvHA8g8GeRbrtbwsc7iqLIIeZAJxOO7Xrc8Gqe1Ahp-A7NveFHrT6Gg)

In the face of this, we must do everything possible to reduce fossil fuel use to avoid handing our children a dystopian future. Why must Vermont act when we are such a small state? Because climate change is a collective problem and collective problems can only be solved through collective action - if each small actor decides their contribution is not meaningful, no one will act.

Critical to the TCI is that it raises the price of fossil fuels for transportation - when things are more expensive people use less. There is no more efficient way to get people to use less fossil fuel and no more efficient way to transition the economy way from fossil fuels. This is the uniform conclusion of virtually every economist and every economic group, including the World Bank and the IMF. As the World Bank’s president said ”to our economists, who have been studying this for quite some time, there is an obvious consensus that putting a price on carbon pollution is by far the most powerful and efficient way to reduce emissions.”

However, key to an equitable and durable policy is to use at least some of the revenue to help the working people and the poor, especially in Vermont’s rural areas. This can be done through a targeted carbon dividend to those least able to afford increased fuel prices.

Attached please find comments from the Southern Environmental Law Center on the Draft Memorandum of Understanding.

For almost 100 years, Richmond based Southern States Cooperative has been supplying Virginia farmers with multiple essential products they need to grow food and fiber for Americans – and fuel is one of the largest categories required to do so. Additionally, Southern States keeps thousands of Virginians warm each year by servicing them with propane and heating oil.
Southern States also employees over 1000 Virginians – and would like to go on record that we are strongly opposed to the "framework for a draft regional policy proposal" which seeks to expropriate the petroleum marketing industry. Over time, this plan proposes to move Virginia from simple rationing and new taxes to the ultimate prohibition of fossil fuels.

For the sake of our families, our children and grandchildren we must be responsible and accountable.

We are working hard in the NEK ( Northeast Kingdom) to reduce carbon emissions- lots of driving in this rural area so we need the incentives that TCI would provide - can’t do much on a meaningful scale without it. As far as it amounting to another tax on fuel- the price of gas differs as much as 25 cents or more per gallon between St. Johnsbury and Lyndonville, the next town north. An added tax of 5 cents pales in comparison to these fluctuations. And the TCI takes seriously the impacts on rural and low income populations, which is a key strength. Vermont needs to be part of this initiative so we have a place at the table when decisions are made.

Thank you for soliciting input and for working together and hard on this super-important issue. Aileen Nowlan at the Environmental Defense Fund can provide up-to-the-minute information on this topic and about hyper-local pollution measurement. Please contact her.

THIS IS A GAS TAX. You can call it whatever you'd like but it's another TAX on gas. This question has been asked and answered at the ballot and was defeated.