TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Once again Massachusetts is leading the region in yet another “ progressive” initiative designed to dupe hardworking taxpayers into what amounts to a thinly veiled tax that was ALREADY VOTED DOWN! Enough already...

The intent of your initiative is most laudable, but as the old saying goes "the devil is in the details". And in that initiative I see numerous details that provide opportunities for the devil to do what the devil does.

A cursory examination of your website reveals that you intend to reduce carbon emissions from the combustion of transportation fuels through "a cap-and-invest program or other pricing mechanism".

Please define "other pricing mechanism". Is there more than one? And just who will pay for the monetary needs of the "other pricing mechanism"? I think I can make a pretty good guess.

Your Draft Regional Policy Proposal decrees that:

Spring – Fall 2020 – Participating jurisdictions develop a “model rule” and take any legislative steps that could be needed to implement the regional program.

2021 – Jurisdictions conduct rulemaking process to adopt regulation

So how do you define “jurisdiction” what “legislative steps” will the “jurisdiction” take? Do you mean a mandated increase of the excise tax that Massachusetts taxpayers are already paying for gasoline? We Taxpayers will have something to say about that, and it won’t be “Yassa, Boss.

I recommend that you review the history from which you have obviously not learned. In 2013 the Mass legislature tried to tie future increases in the state gasoline to the CPI – in other words an Automatic Gas Tax Increase. The very next year the people of Massachusetts successfully put on the ballot a referendum question on that fuel tax increase and threw it right back in the legislators' faces. And the minute you try to shove your “other pricing mechanism” down our throats you had better brace yourselves for the very same reaction.

Having reviewed the many implications and the expected results of your planned "initiatives" I have just two words for you -- and those two words are not "Happy Birthday". Those words also apply to the horse you rode in on.

Sincerely yours,
Cornelius Horan

The working people in Massachusetts have been taxed enough. I am just a stones throw away from the New Hampshire border, where I will be filling my gas tank on a weekly basis if this travesty is shoved down our throats. Go ahead... make my day.

Nuclear Power to Power Etrains, Ecars and Synthetic Fuels made by Nuclear Power to Power Trucks and Planes. Closing Indian Point Nuclear is a HUGE mistake, as it is equal to the 580 Windmills projected off New Jersey. BIOFuels added to Gas and Diesel, provide NO benefit to decarbonation, as growing corn and soybeans uses fossil fuels to produce it, at a huge Enviro Footprint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlvpYyyya_Q
Titans of Nuclear-United Nations hosts Bret Kugelmass on Energy, Climate Change, and Nuclear Power
322,549 views•Nov 15, 2019 Titans of Nuclear=Bret Kugelmass challenges the orthodoxy of both Climate Change and Nuclear Energy across 3 dimensions: Evaluation, Mathematical & Communication.

The stated goals of the TCI are most laudable, however the stratagem to initiate it in Massachusetts is unacceptable. Regardless of how it is primped, preened or presented the TCI is in reality a T-A-X. Yes I know, Governor Baker has dipped deep into his store of weasel words to proclaim otherwise but that does not change the reality. If the TCI Tax were approved by the voters or their elected representatives then so be it. But this devious scheme to force by decree the TCI Carbon Tax upon the citizenry of Massachusetts is revolting (and I use that word advisedly). I am informing all my friends and relatives of Governor Baker's disgraceful attempt to emulate King George III of England. The principle of "No Taxation Without Representation" is just as valid today as it was in 1776.

I support TCI because it addresses both climate change as well as transportation infrastructure needs.

Our region needs improvement on both these fronts immediately. Many of us who are concerned about climate change will be carefully following what the response is from each our region's leaders to implementing the TCI plan. This plan has been carefully crafted and vetted over time and deserves support from any prominent regional leader who has similar concerns about climate change as well as transportation infrastructure improvment.

Man made Climate Change is a hoax! It is a way for elitist Politicians to take working peoples money and to restrict their movements. There has been many periods in the earths history where it has been a lot warmer than it is now. We can start with the Dinosaurs. Also Eric the red in the founding of Greenland had 2 settlements but one had to be abandoned because of the advancement of a glacier which over ran the settlement. Politicians are trying to make working people slaves.

this is a bad idea for anyone on a fixed income no wonder ri cannot attract good paying bussines to ri

Please design a transportation system that will reduce carbon emissions that are at an all time high and are causing significant harm to the planet. Please include a cap and trade policy. Carbon needs to be taken into account when pricing energy. Renewable energy sources rather fossil fuels become more competitive and affordable when the true cost of carbon is taken into effect.