TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

I applaud the TCI for taking a collaborative, forward-looking approach to addressing the climate crisis through bipartisan, cooperative efforts to reduct carbon emissions from transportation. I only wish this work had started 20 years ago. I have a 15-year-old daughter and I am seriously worried about the planet her generation is inheriting.

Transportation is the leading cause of harmful climate change that we are experiencing now with fire storms in California, more severe hurricanes, and rising sea levels. High levels of carbon dioxide in the air are entering the world's oceans, disrupting life there. As greenhouse gas levels rise to levels never before experienced during the time that humans existed, reputable scientists predict that the world will become hotter and less livable. This is all happening at a time when we humans depend even more on nature to provide the conditions to grow our food and just let us survive. This affects people in the developing world - who tend to live in hotter climates to begin with - even more than us. When conditions become unbearable, they migrate.
As Greta Thurnberg clearly states it's immoral to leave our children and future generations a world severely harmed by global climate change.
Since the cost of clean energy is now less than the cost of fossil fuels, there is no reason not to act.
In the realm of transportation, the solutions are electrification (using electricity from solar and other clean sources) of vehicles and at the same time less reliance on driving alone as our primary form of transportation. Alternatives include walking, bicycling, transit, and car-pooling.
When we reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, reductions in health-harming emissions of sulfur and oxides nitrogen decrease. These and volatile organic compounds (e.g., gasoline) plus sunlight are precursors to low-level ozone which also causes disease, disability, and death.
To realize a better future, governments should promote and build infrastructure that encourages walking, bicycling, and transit use and avoid adding more miles of motor vehicle lanes.
The Transportation and Climate Initiative is a great first steps toward addressing the severe problems of climate change and unhealthy air.

We need to focus on reducing pollution from transportation for climate sake, as well as to ensure our communities are livable. Maryland should formally join the plan to reduce emissions and should take important actions to ensure the protection of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Any transportation policy should prioritize clean investments and should assist those areas that don't have access to clean investments. I appreciate the bipartisan creation of this policy and stress the need for regions to move forward, especially at a time when our federal government seems to be reversing course.

Transportation is so critical to the cumulative problems that we face that it is imperative that we do the many initiatives to correct the threats to the climate now. Therefore we need a low carbon response.

Please support TCI as we need to reduce our carbon footprint every way we can and soon. Save the earth for our children and grandchildren ++

The transportation sector produces just over 41% of greenhouse gas emissions in Maryland. Modeled on the successful system for reducing GHG emissions from power plants, this initiative to cap and reduce emissions from transportation fuel combustion is one part of a necessary plan to keep GHG emissions at a livable level. I read many of the comments already submitted and find strong support in heavily populated states such as Maryland, New Jersey, others, but opposition in Maine, where people now must rely on private cars in the absence of transit alternatives. This is where incentives should increase public electric transport and purchase of electric vehicles. Folks, we have a climate crisis here we simply must address. This initiative can be a big part of the solution. Thank you for the proposal.

Local, state, and regional governments have been tacking a major source of greenhouse gas pollution: power plants. Now it's time to do the same for transportation. To protect God's creation, we must take bold steps to rapidly reduce carbon dioxide release from the burning of oil for transportation by instituting a cap and trade program. Proceeds from sale by states of those permits could then be invested in clean alternatives like electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, public transportation, walking and biking projects, and other smart growth initiatives, speeding up the must needed transition to a clean, equitable, 21st century transportation system.

A recent analysis by the Georgetown Climate Center found that investing $3 billion annually in the Northeast states to reduce vehicle GHG emissions would
+ Save thousands of lives in the region in 2030
+ Create more than 113,000 jobs in D.C. and Maryland through 2030
+ Put $11.81 billion in D.C. and Marylanders pockets through 2030

My primary forms of transportation are mass-transit, bike, and a battery electric car. We need to encourage others to make similar transitions and a cap and trade program is one of the best mechanisms.

I encourage you to make a firm commitment to adopt a regional transportation policy that achieves a minimum 40 percent reduction in transportation sector climate pollution by 2030, to keep us on track to meet the climate goals updated by the General Assembly in 2016.

As a long-time resident commuter and driver in Maryland, I believe it is imperative that our state makes a make a firm commitment to adopt a regional transportation policy that achieves a minimum 40 percent reduction in transportation sector climate
pollution by 2030, to keep us on track to meet the climate goals updated by the General Assembly in 2016.
Investment and policy decisions should be made based on pollution reduction and
equity goals, as well as robust engagement opportunities from the public‒particularly
those most overburdened by transportation pollution and undeserved by our current
transportation system.