TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

How many citizens of Maine can afford to buy an electric car? This state has many senior citizens, who can not afford a new car. What is she thinking?? Then, to up the price on gas, plain stupidity.

This is going to raise gas prices and hurt Mainers.I oppose Governor Mills supporting the Transportation Climate Initiative as it is going to increase the price of gasoline and oil prices which in turn affects prices of transporting food and other goods. Mainers need tax relief and I am very disappointed in Governor Mills as she promised that taxes would not be increased yet she increased the state budget by $800 million.These electric vehicles do not purchase fuel and are not paying road use taxes that are imposed on road fuels. I don't think is a good idea to keep subsidizing electric vehicles. Why should we subsidize other peoples choices? Electric vehicles are not as enviromentaly friendly as most think. Batteries alone are expensive produce hazardous byproducts when manufactured. are hazardous and expensive to dispose of, and are a bigger hazard to first responders. We need to take in consideration the number of senior citizens, low income citizens and families that are already strapped with tax burdens.

As a coastal resident, this issue is of great concern to me. I appreciate the fact that Governor Mills appears to share my concern.
It is very important that future policies and initiatives are based on scientific evidence related to emissions that affect climate change.
I would like to see initiatives that provide incentives for types of transportation that will reduce our collective carbon footprint.
Strong action is needed to meet critical climate goals.

We strongly support this initiative, and any others that seek to address the issue of climate disruption and greenhouse gas emissions in Maine. We are residents of Kennebunk, Me.

I am a retiree who relocated to beautiful Kittery Maine in 2016. My wife Jane and I have been climate activists since about 2014 and we need to take action now to this global crisis. Our grand kids will not survive in the world that they will inherit from us.
I applaud Governor Mills for participating in the regional design process. This policy design should reflect the best and latest available science on climate emissions from transportation. This policy should include a strong component of equity that ensures that low-income, rural, or aging populations are not hurt by this program.

One of my key ideas in addition to having municipal, public school and all State agencies convert to electric or hybrid electric vehicles as fast as possible follows.

Based on a recently completed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions in the Town of York Maine the Town's largest source of Green House Gas Emissions (GHG) is on-road transportation at 44%, the next closest category is Heating Fuel at 30%. To respond to the on-road transportation category that includes emissions largely from interstate 95 I would propose a “renewable energy fee” to be levied at the York Toll Plaza that would be used to provide financial assistance to the Town of York residents, commercial businesses and municipal facilities in converting from fossil fuel sourced heat and electricity to renewable sources like solar and wind.

2. I would suggest a starting fee of $5 per vehicle to begin. Such a fee will not stop tourists from driving up through York on I95 and through the Exit 7 toll plaza – they would still come. This system could be made “smart” with an electronic tolling system that would read a vehicles license plate, then interface with the USA vehicle registration system for every state and the fee could be graduated to have a higher fee for the largest polluters (greenhouse gas) such as SUVs, pick-up trucks. With this interface, Maine residents could possibly be excluded from this fee. It could be smarter by including an interface with EPA miles per gallon data by vehicle year and type so as to charge a higher fee on the largest polluters such as SUVs and pick-up trucks. For example I will use my own vehicle, a 2013 Nissan Altima 4 door sedan with a 4 cylinder engine, average miles per gallon (mpg) 29, Fee $3, as compared to a 2015 Toyota Tundra V-8 average miles per gallon 15 mpg, Fee $8. Electric Vehicles would be charged $0.0. I do not know if a data interface such as this can be enabled but research could provide the answer.

3. Maine turnpike authority traffic volume at Exit 7 toll plaza was reported at 931,079* vehicles in 2017 [see footnote * below from the MTA web site report] (see: http://www.maineturnpike.com/About-MTA/Traffic-Statistics/Traffic-by-Interchange.aspx ) – a $5 per vehicle fee would generate $4,655,395 in one year - $4.7 million dollars! How many York residential, commercial, etc. solar systems could be installed? Etc. etc. This fee could also be levied on commercial vehicles as well such as tractor trailer rigs, etc. EV tractor trailer and truck vehicles are currently under development so….

NOTE: The definition for the “traffic by interchange” as reported at the MTA web site would need to be clarified – I am not sure if this count is what we need to determine the total fee dollars.

• Data is represented as total number of trips averaged daily along the Turnpike. This is different than a count by transactions.

. This renewable energy fee could be also applied at every toll plaza along I95 in the States of Maine and NH. New cashless toll plazas to collect these fees could be installed on all the major interstate routes in Maine and NH. Cashless toll plazas have been implemented in other US locations, why not here?

4. Observation: Conversion to Electric Vehicles will continue to be very, very, very slow – climate change is not waiting for this conversion.

Raising gas prices does nothing but take food from working class families. We already pay excise tax every year on our cars which is supposed to keep our taxes down, we also already have taxes in the gas prices and toll plazas across the state. All of the revenue stream were designed to pay for road repairs. Now every year there seems to be a new bond for more money. Now the state is trying to force you I to a vehicle you can't afford. This is a bad idea in a group of bad ideas

I am a new resident to the state of Maine. I want to express my appreciation for all the forward thinking plans/ideas that I am hearing about. I am especially pleased to read about the increasing of environmentally friendly transportation. It is clear that Maine cares deeply about protecting the environment as well as caring about its citizens. Thank you! SWF

This plan would hurt the rural elderly population in Maine as the price of energy for transportation and heat would be driven to unaffordable levels. Current energy alternatives such as wind and solar, and electric vehicles create a net increase in carbon footprint because the resources to mine and produce windmills, batteries, etc., uses more energy than is saved over the lifetime of the current technologies. This plan is bad for Maine residents.