TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

My name is Erica Bartlett, and I live in Portland, Maine. I’m writing in support of the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) because Maine is in great need of clean transportation options. I’m grateful that Gov. Mills is focusing on climate change, including the issue of pollution from emissions, and that this effort has strong bipartisan support.

I hope that the TCI policy design take the latest science on climate emissions into consideration. I would also ask that the policy addresses issues of equity so that rural, low-income, and/or aging populations are not hurt by this program – rather, they should be helped. We need more rural transit options, including electric cars and buses, but we also need more of those options in urban areas. I look forward to seeing how this initiative evolves, and thanks again to those who are leading this effort.

As an elder and a health care provider I am fully aware that we are facing an existential crisis in climate change, I want to express my full support for TCI. My only concerns are that the proposed carbon prices are too low to achieve the emission reduction goals we must meet to avoid the most dire consequences of global warming. My other concern is that some low and middle income individuals and families may suffer unfairly if plans are not developed for tax rebates or other means to reimburse them for gas price increases passed on to them.

My name is Sabrina Fu and I live in Ellicott City, MD and work as a professor in Environmental Management for UMUC. I am well aware of what fossil fuels has done to our lands, waters, and atmosphere the past few hundred years. As a mother and concerned citizen, I spend a lot of volunteer time asking for policies to price pollution and use markets to quickly transition out of fossil fuels.
Please make sure that the policy has a price high enough to effectively reduce emissions rapidly and incorporate a society equity component to protect rural and low-income people from the increase in transportation prices.
Thank you for your bipartisan commitment in moving our transportation section into 21st century energy sources.

The government needs to live within its means. I fully support increasing the quality and capacity of mass transit as an MBTA user for almost 50 years. We already have excise tax and annual emissions inspections in Massachusetts as well as robust gas taxes. The Commonwealth needs to end waste and funding bloated programs of dubious benefit.

This proposal is absolutely insane for the State of Rhode Island!
( Or for anywhere else for that matter ).

With our gas prices being fairly close to nearby Massachusetts, I have been
purchasing almost all of my gas in Rhode Island at the higher price,
just so R.I. could get the tax revenue.

If R.I. adopts the TCI Initiative, all bets are off! Massachusetts here I come!

Also, I recommend voting out any, and all Representatives, Senators
or other proponents who back this TCI Initiative, regardless of there party
affiliations, be they Democrats, Independents or Republicans.
F.Y.I., these are listed in alphabetical order.
I would have included the Governor too, except she wont be there.

With a 9.5 billion budget? NO NEW TAXES! RI Retirees are already hard enough hit! NO TO TCI! NO TO AUTO TOLLS, TOO!!!

Gas taxes place a regressive tax on the working poor. Climate initiatives should be through investment, not placing additional taxes on the working poor.

We, as a government, a country, and a citizenry need to be doing everything we can to reduce climate change. Please support the Transportation and Climate Initiative as one way to do so.