TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Reducing transportation sector emissions is important to me because I'd like to leave a cleaner Earth for my grandchildren. I would like to
thank Gov. Lamont for being involved in the regional design process and request that Connecticut formally sign on to the initiative. We need the TCI leadership to choose the most aggressive greenhouse gas emissions cap since we have already lost precious time in our environmental efforts.
I'm also asking TCI policy has to include equity and investment in overburdened and under-served communities as a first and foremost priority.

Please move forward on this initiative since we have little time to mitigate the worst consequences of planetary warming!

I would like to thank Gov. Lamont for requesting that CT formally sign on to TCI.
Reducing transportation sector emissions is important to me because of the dire climate situation which is largely driven by transportation C02. The climate crisis is UPON us, here and now, and we are losing time to do everything we can to mitigate the losses to come. It is also important to address social justice, since poor communities bear the brunt of climate problems. We have already lost decades in making the broad and unprecedented changes that are needed. Please do everything you can.
Please choose ***the most aggressive**** greenhouse gas emissions cap.
Any TCI policy should address equity and investment in overburdened and under-served communities as a first and foremost priority.

Dear Governor Scott -

I was pleased to see that many northeastern U.S. states including Vermont have signed a memorandum of understanding in regards to setting up a Transportation Climate Initiative marketplace.

As the world heats up, we have been falling further and further behind in reducing our carbon emissions. This, as you know, is definitely true of Vermont.

The new TCI can set a really solid structure to begin addressing carbon pollution in the transportation sector more aggressively, by raising new moneys through the cap and trade approach. This approach has worked well in other energy sectors with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, so there's good reason to think it will work just as well in the transportation sector.

In this era when Vermont has limited ability to raise revenues, collaborating with so many other northeastern states in this approach makes eminent sense. I would like the parameters of the program to be as aggressive as possible so that we can begin making substantive progress reducing carbon in the transportation sector. Whether it be more fully funding electric school buses, or finding money for more electric vehicle charging stations, or incentivizing a hefty increase in purchase of electric vehicles, or other creative and innovative approaches, it's well past the time to really ramp up this type of work.

Thanks so much for your time.

Michael Bosworth

I am strongly in favor of a regional low-carbon transportation proposal and/or system that would help reduce transportation related carbon emissions. I believe climate change is a serious and major issue, and that a variety of solutions and adaptations to climate change will be required.

This is a bipartisan (multi-partisan) multi state push to reduce fossil fuels in the region (and as a result, reduce greenhouse gas pollution).
This is the way to do it, en mass and in collaboration with our neighbors.
Of course it's sometimes hard to do the right thing, but I believe this region wide approach to drastically reduce the fossil fuels used in our transportation system is the way to do it.
I won't be able to attend the public hearing on TCI coming up in Manchester Center on January 30th but it is important that my voice is heard.
Now is the time to make commitments.
Thank you
Steven Stone

Please work to create a TCI policy that brings more public transit to the northeast! Reducing climate damaging emissions from transportation should be a number one priority for Vermont. Currently the public transit options are severely lacking between Brattleboro/Keene/Greenfield/Amherst, and this is an area where many people would be able to use a bus instead of driving I-91.

Through my work at 350 Vermont, with the Vermont Wilderness School, and as a parent of young children, I am committed to cleaner transportation future for Vermont. Vermont’s largest source of carbon pollution comes from the transportation sector, accounting for 44% of Vermont’s climate pollution. That is unacceptable.

I urge Vermont to participate in the Transportation and Climate Initiative so that all Vermonters, including my young children, live in a world where they do not have to choose between being able to get where they need to go and polluting the planet irreparably.

Vermont, like other states, desperately needs additional funding to create innovative, equitable transportation options for all, including seniors/people with disabilities/people with low incomes, for whom transportation costs and accessibility are an added burden. TCI can provide this support.

As someone who works with rural Vermonters, I see the extreme need for increased accessibility. We might be a rural state, but that is no excuse for expecting people to rely solely on personal vehicles, which are costly to operate and have limitations for many, in addition to being high polluters. A lack of reliable transportation options can have a negative effect on entire rural towns.

As you know, Vermont’s participation in a cap and invest program is not new. Under Governor Jim Douglas, Vermont joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in 2008. This cap and invest program covers the electric sector in the Northeast, and it has proven very successful, reducing consumer costs and carbon pollution from the power sector by 40%.

Vermont has strategically invested the revenues raised from RGGI, directing the $2 million annually into weatherization programs that help Vermonters stop wasting energy and save money. We know this type of project works — there is no excuse not to adopt TCI as well.

TCI provides the opportunity to tackle the biggest problem of our day — climate change — by reducing emissions in our state’s most carbon-intensive sector, while diverting funds into much-needed transportation infrastructure that will benefit all.

We can either seize this opportunity to make monumental progress and have a chance to prosper in a clean energy future, or accept a status quo that is only becoming more and more difficult for Vermonters and more harmful to our environment.

I urge Vermont to formally join TCI so we can create a clean energy future that works better for everyone, especially our most vulnerable. Thank you for the work you’ve done so far to advance TCI across the region.

Please please please join the TCI program, our economy and the health of our state depends on these important funds!