TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

We need to make changes now. We cannot keep putting the lives of future generations at risk. What is convenient to you know will suffocate your great grand kids. Please look beyond the convenience of fossil fuels to a sustainable alternative in which kids can breathe fresh air and don't have to worry like I do today.

I cannot think of a more important issue than taking every path to lower emissions in our very "at risk" State of NJ! Please do whatever is possible to see this is done in the transportation sector of this extremely populated state.

I hope that PA will formally join the plan to reduce emissions and that the policy will have a strong component of equity by prioritizing clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution and/or for those who don't have access.

My home area is the crossroads, north, south, east and west for the trucking and distribution of goods from all over the mid-Atlantic states. I am not a scientist or chemist, but I do know that diesel fuel is the cause of high air pollution in PA. More rail? More electric cars and buses for public transportation. The population is increasing, the trash from out of state is building up in our landfills! These last actions that I mention bring added stresses to our land and water sources. Although, agriculture still in practiced by the Plain Sects who live here, their knowledge of land usages, fertilizer and pesticides is limited. More education is needed concerning many of these problems!

Clean Transportation Can Protect Our Environment and Grow Our Economy
HIGHLIGHTS
The Northeast has helped lead the nation
in reducing pollution from electricity.
Now the largest source of pollution in the
region comes from transportation. We
can create a better, cleaner transportation
system for Northeast residents through
investments in public transportation and
new technologies such as electric vehicles.
An important step forward would be for the
Northeast region to set an overall limit
on pollution from transportation through
a regional “cap-and-invest” program,
similar to the program the region
implemented for electricity-related
emissions. This program would begin to
hold oil companies accountable for their
emissions and provide funding for clean
mobility for Northeast residents.
Over the past decade, the Northeast region of the United States has helped lead
the country—and the world—in supporting and developing clean, renewable
sources of electricity. Taken together, the policies of Northeast states, from Maine
to Maryland, have generated billions of dollars in investment for solar, wind, and
efficiency. One driving force behind this investment is a regional initiative that
caps emissions from the electricity sector, charges power plants for the emissions
they generate, and invests the revenue from those fees into efficiency and clean
energy programs. This initiative has helped fundamentally change the region’s
electricity sector: we have achieved unprecedented penetration of renewables,
nearly eliminated the use of coal, and reduced overall electricity use at a time of
economic expansion.
The next big step for the region is to bring that same sense of commitment,
ingenuity, and purpose to clean transportation.
Transportation is the largest source of pollution in the Northeast region,
comprising more than 40 percent of total regional global warming emissions
(Georgetown Climate Center 2015). In addition to the health impacts associated
with rising temperatures, soot and ground-level ozone from the region’s cars
and trucks are responsible for more than 50,000 asthma attacks, 1,000 deaths,
and other pollution-related illnesses that incur approximately $27 billion in total
health care costs every year (Holmes-Gen and Barrett 2016). The health impacts
of transportation affect all of us, but especially vulnerable are children, the elderly,
the chronically ill, and people in low-income communities (who often live in or
near freight corridors).

Baltimore's public transportation system is horrible for most residents. We need a clean and expanded system that covers all areas of the city.

Climate change is the existential threat and transportation is the largest contributor. Do something please

Most automobiles are idle about 98% of the time. This has climate impact in the embodied energy in the car and associated carbon emissions are not recovered. I would recommend that the following actions to create a lower-carbon transportation infrastructure be seriously analyzed and the best candidates implemented:
- improved bus transportation networks using the cleanest and most reliable powerplant technology - e.g. electric, fuel cell, hybrid.
- free car sharing apps so that citizens can self-organize into carpools
- light rail lines where they can be well-utilized
- improving existing rail and subway systems
- planning for autonomous cars that would eventually replace personally owned cars with anew model of "transportation-as-a-service"
- subsidized bicycle lanes and trail systems
- research viability of publicly available electric scooters and bicycles and how to deploy them safely
- promotion of free public/private transportation apps that determine the best modality and routes for destinations throughout the Northeast

Thank you for addressing the greatest crisis of our times, global warming, in a bi-partisan way. Reducing transportation pollution, which is our largest source of global warming emissions, is in everyone's best interest. We are already suffering from the harms of global warming, including more severe storms, drought, wildfires and temperature extremes which have resulted in many deaths, great destruction and financial cost. I commend governor Cuomo, the New York State legislature, and all of the activists for the CLCPA law signed last year to combat this problem. I encourage governor Cuomo to continue his strong leadership on this issue and formally commit New York to join the plan to reduce emissions. Please prioritize clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution and/or for those who don't have access. Thank you for reading my comments.