TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

I own a home care agency where my staff go to home visits throughout northern RI. They drive from house to house. The increase in the gas tax will have a direct impact on their income and expenses. The state already steals money from all of the residents with a toll on trucks (what do you think, the cost doesn't get passed on to consumers)? RI signing on to this TCI will do nothing for the world's pollution problem. It will only put money into the pockets of the connected wealthy politicians and friends who are allowed to get into businesses that will benefit from the money generated by the new tax. This would be a disaster and would give home care workers another reason to quit their job and move into career paths that would not require them to drive their car so much, leaving many, many patients with no one to care for them, forcing them into much more expensive nursing homes.

I am deeply opposed to Maine being part of this initiative. While I support reasonable steps to reduce our carbon footprint, this initiative is not reasonable. Maine is a relatively poor state, with an aging population, incomes below average and many people living paycheck to paycheck. Adding this tax to already high fuel prices will be burdensome on hardworking Maine families. Personally, it will add to my fuel costs to drive to work, add to our expenses at the grocery and other stores (the companies who deliver goods to stores cannot absorb this additional tax and the cost will trickle down at the market) and it will add significantly to my husband's costs. He is a self-employed truck driver; he will take the hit for the additional tax, which cuts into our profits, plus we will have the higher cost at the market and likely higher heating costs. We will seriously need to consider leaving Maine after 25 years living here if this goes through. PLEASE reconsider, as it looks like other states are reconsidering. Mainers simply cannot afford it!!

Please do not allow this to go through. It is another tax on us. If you want to push this through, please put it to a vote. Let the taxpayer decide.

This is another stupid idea to take money from ordinary citizens and give more money to the government. If history is a teacher the CT politicians will take the monies and spend it on other things. I live in northeast CT where there is no public transportation in my area. If this tax goes through the rural areas will be subsidizing the cities. The practical effect will be a huge increase in the cost of goods that are delivered by truck. This will mean prices on everything will go up for no real benefit to the general population.

Electric powered vehicles are most likely the future of private transportation. But there will be a huge surge in demand on the electrical grid. This will mean that more power plants will need to be built but the environmentalists are opposed to new power plants. Solar generated electricity has not developed enough to meet demand yet. So how are we going to produce more electricity?

In my opinion man made climate change is a hoax.

In Vermont, the transportation sector has the largest contribution to statewide greenhouse gas emissions. Many Vermonters must also drive long distances between their homes and their jobs, making affordable transportation a critical economic equity and social welfare issue. I strongly support the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) as a tool that can quickly reduce regional transportation GHG emissions. However, we must be careful to design TCI so as to make affordable, low-carbon transportation options available to rural citizens in the region.

The business community understands the importance of taking action on climate change. This initiative creates the opportunity to invest in our local community transportation systems while also addressing the climate crisis. Living in central Vermont, we have no access to public transportation. We have back-and-rides in almost all of our communities but nothing connecting them. In the winter, we have thousands of people driving each day between Rt 4, 100, and 107 between hotels ski resorts and different tourist destinations. We could alleviate the traffic, congestion in our small town, and restore our broken roads.

As a person living in a rural area, I think that TCI is extremely important. When states join TCI, they have the opportunity to invest in rural communities where transportation options are limited. Joining TCI would allow Vermont to ensure that rural communities aren’t left behind in the green transition and stuck behind the wheel of costly, inefficient vehicles. Our Governor should push for an ambitious TCI program so that rural communities like mine get the solutions they need.

We must reduce pollution from transportation, our largest source of global warming emissions.
And this is New York's opportunity to formally join the plan to reduce emissions.
The policy must have a strong component of equity by prioritizing clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution.
I am grateful for the bipartisan nature of this project, moving us forward while the federal government takes us backward.

More highways, more cars, trucks and pollution. It's not worth the cost. We could and should be way ahead with rail infrastructure. We have thousands of young men and women ready and willing to go to work to make this a reality and a country ready for future change.

Fuel efficiency is a good thing. Disposal of renewable energy parts is of serious concern. Exploitation of children in mining for the use of rare earth minerals to satisfy technological uses such as in renewables like electric batteries is not a good thing. Windpower kills birds and insects by the thousands and tens of thousands. Solar arrays fry birds and insects. Then the costs of these exotic technologies has the most deleterious effect on the poor and most vulnerable of all nations. People who can't afford expensive solar panels on their houses, or that $30-40000 hybrid or electric vehicle. If people were really serious about the environment then we would be talking more about chemical pollution into the oceans, and people littering which still happens nonstop. We would also be talking about hydrogen power and nuclear power which have zero carbon emissions. Although as most scientists and people of relative intelligence will tell you carbon dioxide is necessary for plant and tree life to be sustained. To tax it into oblivion is pure suicide and harmful for all life as we know it on this planet.