TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

We need to switch all fossil fuel cars and small trucks to all electric in the next 10-15 years and make
Towns and cities friendly for micro mobility and pedestrian in 5 years

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!

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.

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.

Xpress Markets, Inc., currently employs 90 people, is 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.

This plan does not assess the collateral damage it will inflict on state revenue, local tax collections, Virginia's Transportation Trust fund, and consumers.

Many of the advocates of these policies support regulation to electrify transportation. Those advocates somehow forget to mention that a major component of batteries powering these vehicles is cobalt, 90 percent of which is mined in third world countries under unfavorable working conditions.

As the number of electric vehicles grows, petroleum marketers will likely have to battle for a share of the electric vehicle charging market with utility companies that see EV charging as a new business opportunity without cost. When utility companies install charging stations, they may seek the ability to include that cost as part of their capital investment. When these costs are approved by governmental regulatory agencies, they can then be passed on to all ratepayers as part of their monthly electric bills.

Xpress Markets, Inc believes this would provide regulated utilities an unfair competitive advantage that Virginia based small businesses simply cannot compete with. I must economically justify and self-fund at risk investments in new equipment like EV charging stations and so should my competition.

Another likely competitor under this scheme is the state government itself. This is not a concept, as just this past session the General Assembly passed legislation to allow the Departments of Conservation and Recreation, General Services, and Transportation to install electric chargers. Fortunately our association was able to narrow this initiative considerably by limiting the number of state agencies involved and mitigating the threat of unfair competition by requiring the state to sell the power at prevailing market rates including taxes.

All Virginians, particularly the petroleum marketing and convenience industries, support a clean environment. There are many ways to achieve this without rationing. Incentivizing the sale of electric vehicles does nothing to meet your stated goals of "equity, environmental justice, and non-discrimination." As one example, the stated goals could be achieved far faster and cheaper via efforts to assist low-income Virginians to purchase more fuel efficient vehicles that meet current and future CAFÉ standards.

History has proven that rationing followed by prohibition - the ultimate goal of TCI - has led to black markets, unregulated and untaxed sales, and undue burdens on law enforcement.

The impact of these proposals will not be solely on fuel sellers and convenience stores - what about the auto repair industry, muffler shops, service facilities at new car dealers, quick lubes etc.? What about agriculture, construction and watermen who will be forced to scrap present equipment or pay artificially high prices due to rationing? What about the consumer who will experience not only higher prices to operate their personal vehicles, but higher prices for consumer goods and services?

Xpress Markets, Inc opposes the TCI plan to ration, tax and ultimately eliminate fossil fuels.

PFMLA tax, increases sales taxes, higher real estate taxes. Time for businesses and individuals to move to New Hampshire!
www.stevedcpa.com

You people want these taxes to create more jobs and profits for MORE political hacks. YOU ARE KILLING THE GOLDEN GOOSE!

One quick partial solution to our carbon output would be to provide funding for electric buses for all school districts throughout the state. Probably (I'm guessing, have no statistics) more fuel is consumed in bussing kids to and from school and other activities than any other transportation system in Maine and this would go a long way toward mitigating our output.
Providing public transportation throughout the state is a really thorny problem since we are such a sprawled population but I am convinced that here on the coast at least affordable housing would help resolve some of that. Every morning and every afternoon in Camden, Rockland, and other midcoast communities where the jobs are, hordes of mostly large SUVs, often with heavy snowplows attached, and usually with just one occupant, flood in from Washington, Appleton, Hope (the hinterland), as workers drive from where they live to where they work. Housing costs in the midcoast have soared so high, often with out-of-state demand for a piece of the coast of Maine, that employees at all levels can no longer afford to live in the town where they work.
Beyond that, of course, is the problem of public transportation which almost seems insoluble in a state as large and with a population as sprawling as Maine's. I will be looking for creative solutions to this--tax relief for shared vehicles? more and safer bicycle lanes? more power outlets for electric vehicles? Everything I come up with seems like a minor stopgap measure but there HAS to be a way to get people where they want to go (and, equally important, when they want to go there) that doesn't involve massive single-person transit by the most energy-wasteful form of population that humankind has invented, the personal automotive vehicle. Perhaps a good way to start would be by funding a huge research effort at the University of Maine.