TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

This is a very important program; one of the most urgent we have. Is there a "Buy Back" and replace program for low-income residents that will enable them to trade in old, inefficient cars for more efficient ones? Or, a program to retrofit older vehicles with options that will lower emissions? Or, a program to provide free vehicle inspection and upgrade services to low income families?
I would also like to see local industry recycling all plastic products. I know we have Sterling plastics; surely we could have more? And a total ban on all plastic foam entering the area or being used for take-out food and packaging.
I am devastated at the setbacks faced by the offshore wind programs while destructive oil and gas drilling is being pushed on the people of this country.

No!! Absolutely not! This is totally unconstitutional! ALL taxes must begin in the House of Representatives! I drive for a living in my real estate business. This will NEVER be supported by the public.

I am against this plan. I drive all throughout Maine to help assist my disabled Mother and other family members spread over the state. And my job requires I drive out of state. I cannot be forced to drive an electric car.

It is imperative that we join this both for climate reasons and financial reasons.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Seeger

i would just suggest that you not let money be the #1 priority. this is important and better to have the climate mitigation be your overriding concern.

I am a retired engineer who early in my career worked for a state Air Quality Program. I have a BS degree in Meteorology, am quite familiar with regional air quality modeling, and understand all too well the issue of carbon emissions and the impact on climate.

With regard to the approach outlined by the TCI to reduce carbon emissions from the mobile source sector, it is fundamentally flawed.

First, the economic side: A "carbon tax" or "gas tax" is extremely regressive and hurts low-income individual, small business, and rural communities disproportionately. The relatively MINOR emission reductions gained by this approach will do nothing to curve "climate change" and only place an unnecessary burden on low income, rural Mainers. We do not have the ability in this state not to drive. Taxes without representation is a socialist concept, not one of a free society.

Second, the scientific side. To argue that ANY reductions in emissions from the transportation sector will "reverse" climate change is silly and unscientific. To think that if the world were to stop emitting carbon tomorrow (every living organism on the planet would need to stop breathing) and then believing the climate would return to 1800's levels, is farcical. Think about it. Can humans really control the climate? Ridiculous. The biggest fraud on the American public is when the courts ruled that CO2 was an air pollutant! How can that be, when CO2 is merely part of an organism's life cycle. CO2 is not and never should be considered a pollutant. This is a manufactured crisis. If the climate changes, for whatever reason, we adapt. Has happened over the millennium. Humans adapt to their environment, they cannot control it.

SAY NO to this ill-conceived plan. NO TAXES without representation, and CO2 is NOT a pollutant.

The TCI policy is designed to create a high cost bureaucracy that will fail to impact regional emissions of carbon. This effort in wealth redistribution is a ploy without determining any substantial benefit in lowering carbon emissions from the transportation sector. US energy policy has already shown significant reductions in CO2 from increased use of natural gas, allowing the US to be a world leader in CO2 reduction. Temperature data from the US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) has demonstrated a reduction in temperature since 2005 with any recent increases in CO2 levels, thereby disproving any correlation between temperature and CO2 levels. The TCI program has not demonstrated it would have any beneficial impact on temperature. As a part of a global community, any US actions (which have shown a reduction in CO2 generation) are outweighed by other nations (e.g. China, India) that will continue to develop their economies and CO2 emissions.

Gov Mills will be taking Maine down the wrong path with TCI. One of Maine's long standing industries, logging, will greatly suffer with increased fuel taxes. This is a rural state which often requires long distance driving between communities. I am a retired citizen living on fixed income and can't afford additional fuel taxes for my everyday living that Gov Mills feels is required. TCI is not a good deal for Mainers.