TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Transportation remains one of our main sources of air pollution and climate change--and one that involves every one of us. But to make significant improvement requires more than individual efforts. We are therefore counting on initiatives like TCI to assure that our children and grandchildren can live in a safe environment.

I am a retiree who relocated to beautiful Kittery Maine in 2016. My wife Jane and I have been climate activists since about 2014 and we need to take action now to this global crisis. Our grand kids will not survive in the world that they will inherit from us.
I applaud Governor Mills for participating in the regional design process. This policy design should reflect the best and latest available science on climate emissions from transportation. This policy should include a strong component of equity that ensures that low-income, rural, or aging populations are not hurt by this program.

One of my key ideas in addition to having municipal, public school and all State agencies convert to electric or hybrid electric vehicles as fast as possible follows.

Based on a recently completed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions in the Town of York Maine the Town's largest source of Green House Gas Emissions (GHG) is on-road transportation at 44%, the next closest category is Heating Fuel at 30%. To respond to the on-road transportation category that includes emissions largely from interstate 95 I would propose a “renewable energy fee” to be levied at the York Toll Plaza that would be used to provide financial assistance to the Town of York residents, commercial businesses and municipal facilities in converting from fossil fuel sourced heat and electricity to renewable sources like solar and wind.

2. I would suggest a starting fee of $5 per vehicle to begin. Such a fee will not stop tourists from driving up through York on I95 and through the Exit 7 toll plaza – they would still come. This system could be made “smart” with an electronic tolling system that would read a vehicles license plate, then interface with the USA vehicle registration system for every state and the fee could be graduated to have a higher fee for the largest polluters (greenhouse gas) such as SUVs, pick-up trucks. With this interface, Maine residents could possibly be excluded from this fee. It could be smarter by including an interface with EPA miles per gallon data by vehicle year and type so as to charge a higher fee on the largest polluters such as SUVs and pick-up trucks. For example I will use my own vehicle, a 2013 Nissan Altima 4 door sedan with a 4 cylinder engine, average miles per gallon (mpg) 29, Fee $3, as compared to a 2015 Toyota Tundra V-8 average miles per gallon 15 mpg, Fee $8. Electric Vehicles would be charged $0.0. I do not know if a data interface such as this can be enabled but research could provide the answer.

3. Maine turnpike authority traffic volume at Exit 7 toll plaza was reported at 931,079* vehicles in 2017 [see footnote * below from the MTA web site report] (see: http://www.maineturnpike.com/About-MTA/Traffic-Statistics/Traffic-by-Interchange.aspx ) – a $5 per vehicle fee would generate $4,655,395 in one year - $4.7 million dollars! How many York residential, commercial, etc. solar systems could be installed? Etc. etc. This fee could also be levied on commercial vehicles as well such as tractor trailer rigs, etc. EV tractor trailer and truck vehicles are currently under development so….

NOTE: The definition for the “traffic by interchange” as reported at the MTA web site would need to be clarified – I am not sure if this count is what we need to determine the total fee dollars.

• Data is represented as total number of trips averaged daily along the Turnpike. This is different than a count by transactions.

. This renewable energy fee could be also applied at every toll plaza along I95 in the States of Maine and NH. New cashless toll plazas to collect these fees could be installed on all the major interstate routes in Maine and NH. Cashless toll plazas have been implemented in other US locations, why not here?

4. Observation: Conversion to Electric Vehicles will continue to be very, very, very slow – climate change is not waiting for this conversion.

My walking is limited. But I still work and like to get around, both locally and from western Mass. to Boston, the New England states, NY and NJ as well as further afield. Parking is a nightmare, traffic makes a trip take twice as long, and it all uses gas. We can do better!

Please support electric transport ebikes escooters e-cars ebuses and strains thanks