TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Please see attached NFIB comment letter dated January 9, 2020, on Transportation & Climate Initiative.

it is most important to reduce pollution from transportation. it is the primary source of pollution causing numerous health problems as well as deaths. We need the District of Columbia to formally join the plan to reduce emissions.We appreciate having a say in this bipartisan project and hope that we will get a result against the wishes and doing of the federal government which refuses to listen to science and doesn't care about the impact of pollution on the country and its citizens.

I am strongly in favor of transportation ideas that will help reduce carbon emissions and offer all of us better options. We need more public transit and electric vehicle infrastructure in rural areas, as well as expansion of commuter rail, electric vehicles, and streets in the suburbs that are safe, walkable, and bikeable, and especially more sustainable and equitable housing near transit and electric bus fleets in urban communities. In our area, traffic is awful and we need more options for people to commute besides yet more roads with more cars. People won't use public transit unless it is reliable, available, affordable, and gets them where they need to go.

I strongly support having a green economy and the Transportation and Climate initiative. I actually do not own a car myself for environmental reasons, and rely on public transport and car sharing to get me where I need to go. Having other initiatives put in place to make our region greener is a good thing.

Please see uploaded NGVAmerica comment letter.

Thank you,

Sherrie Merrow
Director, NGVAmerica State Affairs

The Institute for Energy Research opposes the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI).

The justification offered for TCI is that greenhouse gas emissions constitute a threat to the people of the region, but the Draft Memorandum’s assertions are overstated. The Draft Memorandum claims, “climate change poses a clear, present, and increasingly dangerous threat to the communities and economic security of each Signatory Jurisdiction.” But while some portions of the TCI region may be made worse off by climate change, other portions are likely to be made better off. It is widely accepted that cities at northerly latitudes, such as Buffalo, New York, may benefit from a warming climate. It is reasonable to speculate that Buffalo and other municipalities across the TCI region will become more attractive destinations for in-migration and will reap the rewards of increased human capital and weather more conducive to productivity.

Even taking the Draft Memorandum’s climate claims at face value, we must still ask: Will TCI provide relief to the region’s residents? The answer is a resounding “no.”

The numbers presented in the December 2019 TCI webinar show this failure. The TCI slides claim the proposal will reduce regional transportation-sector emissions by between 20 and 25 percent. The same documents cite a reference case—i.e., a scenario without the TCI emissions cap—in which emissions fall by 19 percent. In the no-cap reference case, emissions tally 206 million tons in 2032; in the scenario with the TCI cap set at a 20-percent reduction level, 2032 emissions are 202 million tons—just 4 million tons lower. In the context of the more than 30 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted globally each year, the climate impact of TCI’s incremental reduction of 4 million tons is too small for measurement.

Meanwhile, the program will remove over $1 billion annually from the regional economy for allowance purchases. This will harm every resident of the region through increased transportation expenses. These costs will not only be seen by motorists in the form of higher fuel prices; urban residents who prefer public transit will also face higher prices, such as for goods transported to the region’s cities by truck. TCI will not confer measurable climate benefits, but it will result in immediate cost-of-living increases for millions of people.

Lastly, with its vague spending mandates, TCI will be fertile ground for corruption and waste. TCI jurisdictions will tax the general population only to dole out the proceeds to politically-favored firms that stand to benefit from TCI investments.

The Sierra Club is sharing the attached 38 comments from our members and supporters in the District of Columbia supporting finalizing the Draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). Thank you for helping to design a regional policy to limit climate pollution from motor fuels and invest in a modern, clean, transportation future. The evidence is clear: the more we limit pollution from motor fuels, the more jobs are created, the more the economy grows, and the more lives we save. Please sign on to the agreement to implement a strong, equitable regional climate protection policy through TCI. Invest in the communities that have suffered the most from burning gasoline and have the least access to clean transportation options. Stop sending our hard-earned dollars out of the state to oil companies, and choose to create jobs, grow the economy, and save lives for families and businesses. Thank you.