TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Taxation, fees, and restrictive regulations are the wrong way to stimulate innovation. Positive incentives are much more effective and likely to achieve new ways to improve environmental performance. The notion that there is an urgent environmental crisis is not born out by the facts. This truth is becoming more and more clear. Our environment has been continually improving since the 1950s. People are made of carbon and people are the solution to continued environmental progress not the problem.

Ct is a small state with a lot of traffic going through it. We need to encourage low carbon transportation for the health of our residents, the health of our environment, and for the health of the planet.

Raising taxes will just put more stress on people that are living paycheck to paycheck and will just be one step closer to turning into Los Angeles

I thank Gov. Baker for steering this project and I fully support MA joining the TCI program. Reducing pollution from motor vehicles will strongly help reduce CO2 pollution in the region, which I intensely hope for. I hope that the TCI leaders will go for the most aggressive greenhouse gas goals that will help us reach the target that current climate science tells us we need.. I ask that TCI in MA give priority to areas in which people don't have access to transportation choices and areas most highly burdened by pollution.

I think the program should include a tax on carbon emissions at the same level in all the states. The proceeds should be applied to transportation improvements to be selected by each stae.

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This TCI can be a good part of the many needed tools to reduce GHG emissions. The goal over ten years should be at least a 50% reduction.

Dear Gov. Baker, Board, and to Everyone,
I am thrilled that you are taking steps to reduce climate change! The transportation sector plays a large role in CO2 emissions and greening it up, will be excellent for the state of Massachusetts. However, I want to encourage you to do more. While the national discourse sees climate change as an issue I see it as an opportunity. We have the opportunity to develop the state by investing in new technologies and ensuring all people can be employed and productive for years to come.
Massachusetts has always been at the forefront of innovation and we have great research institutions and initiative. I want your climate plan to be bolder, take larger steps to tackling this, because if we do, the dividends will be huge. Think: if we encourage green energy across the grid, we can develop solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and other new technology that will be more efficient, have better storage than what is seen before. This will be implemented all across MA. It will be state born and bred, and sought out by other states or even other countries! The business ventures will be huge; oil supplies are running out and are becoming riskier to get, and this will ensure long-term growth. This growth should then be used to employ people from all sectors in MA: from engineers to design, electricians and builders to install, and marketers to show everyone how great all of this exciting innovation is.
As an engineering student, I have been told, and firmly believe, that bold innovation is what moves everything forward. Think of the industrial revolution, or even the invention of the internet. So I challenge you, Baker, to take this opportunity and allow Massachusetts to innovate its future, sustainably.

I'm a CT resident deeply concerned about climate change caused by carbon emissions and the inaction of our current federal government. That's why I feel that strong leadership must be carried out at the state and local levels; in particular, by the governors of our region.

To reduce carbon emissions to the extent necessary to avoid climate disaster, market forces will need to be harnessed to effect rapid and far-reaching change. The astounding growth of renewable energy is one example of the power of market forces to drive rapid sustainable development. By putting a price on carbon via a 'cap-and-trade' or 'cap-and-invest' program throughout the Northeast the external costs of carbon can be 'internalized' and an imperative for economic actors to move quickly towards carbon neutrality.

By joining a regional New England/Mid-Atlantic compact, CT can harness this much larger economic area as a 'force-multiplier' to drive other regions in a similar direction - if they wish to compete in our region. Similar to the power of California's market in driving auto emission reduction measures.

So I urge you to join in this promising regional initiative. I view climate change now as an existential threat on a level with nuclear proliferation, and one that will have to be addressed by leadership at the state level. As such, this is my #1 political concern as a Connecticut voter.

Many thanks for your attention to this.

James H. Whitcomb, Jr.