TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

I am a mother and a grandmother. I am appealing to you as a parent, grandparent, uncle or aunt. We must ensure low-carbon transportation so that our next generations will be able to live. To do this I am asking that you approve:

- cap on carbon emissions of at least 25% by 2032
-an increase in the minimum investment in overburdened and underserved communities (>35%)
- investments be put towards active transportation like better sidewalks, bicycle infrastructure, and high quality public transit
According to a recently released study by Harvard and other institutions, if the program is designed appropriately, up to 1,100 lives can be saved annually, and the region could see $11 billion in health benefits each year.
Thank you for yout consideration of these requests.

We are in Crisis. We must take every opportunity possible to bring our planet back to balance. I'm old enough to remember a clean Chesapeake Bay and where clean water was not something to worry about. Our future generations deserve more from us. For generations, we have been self-absorbed, greedy and negligent. We must wake up and make every possible change for the better. Fossil fuels must go now, not later - start to move away from them in big ways - like transportation. We must take care of this planet that sustains our very lives. It is insanity to do anything less. Do the right thing here. This is a good thing.

this bill will destroy my lively hood, its already too hard to survive, i have to be on 24x7 on call put lots of hour to save labor so i can meet both ends. Two kids in college and one high school.
i don"t know anything else and i am 57 years old. please do not make these changes to destroy my livelihood.
thanks

The Baltimore Office of Sustainability appreciates the opportunity to provide input and feedback on the framework for a draft regional policy proposal prepared by the Transportation Climate Initiative. The City of Baltimore has committed to achieving reductions similar to goals set by the Paris agreement: 25 percent reduction by 2020 and 30 percent by 2025 (relative to 2007). Our most recent inventory showed that emissions have dropped by 15-20 percent, but more work still needs to be done to ensure that all residents are able to breathe cleaner air and face reduced risks of natural disasters. About 30 percent of our city’s greenhouse emissions come from the transportation sector.

Our 2019 Sustainability Plan lays out strategies and actions around climate change, transportation, and equity (among other topics), and is the basis for our comments:

Program Design Elements: Equity

• We applaud the emphasis on historic inequities in the development of programmatic outcomes. We recommend that a shared definition of equity be developed and included in the final framework, and that the framework also reflect how equity will also be included in the process moving forward. Will there be shared standards around community engagement and involvement as TCI is implemented and as decisions are made about investment of proceeds.
• The commitment to working with low-income communities, communities of color, and communities with limited mobility options (not just soliciting feedback from) should be strengthened.
• Seemingly absent from this framework is any discussion of how to make the impact of the TCI program less regressive, in terms of mitigating the impact on low-income individuals of the upward pressure on gasoline prices.
• Equity concerns are also central to the “additional program design elements” and more discussion of equity in these sections would improve the framwork and the eventual program.

Program Design Elements: Regulated Entities

• We would like to see clarification about the definition of a ‘supplier’ – will there be a minimum threshold of gallons sold? Is it expected that a City that dispenses fuel only to its own fleet vehicles would be a regulated entity?
• Will there be any industries or categories of entities that are exempted from regulation? If so, the process for determining these exemptions should be public and transparent and include an analysis of the impacts of these exemptions on the cost of the program.

Flexibility, Allowance Allocation, and Stringency

• We would like to see more information in the framework to address the possibility of leakage, or describing why this is not expected to be a problem.
• A risk that TCI is likely already considering is the potential for black market sales of product obtained in non-participant states. This represents a particular risk for poorer communities, insomuch as black market activities might concentrate in those areas.
• The TCI must also be considering border effects for fuel sales. Wealthier, more mobile individuals are more likely to be able to travel to non-regulated jurisdictions to obtain less expensive product.

Additional Program Design Elements: Investment of Proceeds

• We recommend that investment guidelines be jointly developed by member states. At a minimum, these guidelines should cover the process that each jurisdiction should use to get community input into decisions about how to invest proceeds. A preferred hierarchy or proportion of project types would also be beneficial. For example, should a set percentage of proceeds be used to mitigate or offset the impact on low-income households of any price increases?
• Similarly, a proactive emphasis on complementary policies would be valuable. For example, coordinated policy fora might be established to address complementary policies in the area of land use, infrastructure, etc.

We all agree that emissions should be reduced, but cling to lifestyles thhat produce emissions. Low emission public transportation is good, but limited in availability. Electric autos are increasing, and also offer improvement. To be realistic, we need means to take carbon out of the atmosphere also, a project in its infancy. Increased taxes may help, but committed individuals will do this without tax incentives - we need to pursuade more citizens this is important. No single solution exists. Transportation is a necessity. Keep trying.

Mass transportation is good for the environment and good for people. The fossil fuel industry has lobbied and propagandized everyone away from the most efficient and enlightened form of transportation in order to peddle WASTE and POLLUTION.

We believe it's essential to adopt a low-carbon transportation policy and build the public transportation network that will serve people throughout the region. We live in a suburb of Baltimore, and we have very few options to get to events in the city or in other suburbs except driving our car. We want to see more public transportation, starting with completion of the Red Line.

We need a plan that holds large transportation polluters accountable for the pollution they create and invests in clean transportation solutions including more public transit and electric vehicle infrastructure in rural areas; expansion of commuter rail, electric vehicles, and streets in the suburbs that are safe, walkable, and bikeable; construction of sustainable and equitable housing near transit; and providing electric bus fleets in urban communities.

We have seen how well electric public transportation works in our vacation travels in Europe. Cities in France have built new streetcar networks, and their success has led to installation of added streetcar lines and completely new systems in other cities. These are comfortable, modern streetcars that take people to work, to cultural events, and to sporting events.

Please write a plan that will greatly reduce carbon emissions and expand public transportation throughout the region.

Baltimore badly needs better public transit and we almost got it until Gov. Hogan cancelled the Red Line. My husband and I believe so strongly in the importance of transit as a way to improve our cities and the environment that we drive an electric car and created a pro bono video for the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance: https://vimeo.com/261064553