TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

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).

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!

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.

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.

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 want transportation pollution managed and reduced asap because it is our largest source of global warming emissions (regionally and nationally). Please, Massachusetts formally join the plan to reduce emissions.
In addition, it is essential that all policies have a strong component of equity by prioritizing clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution and/or for those who don't have access.
Finally, I am grateful for the bipartisan nature of this project, moving us forward while the federal government takes us backward.

We need better and cleaner public transportation for the future. As a family that is car-free, we rely on public transit to get around. With our environment deteriorating around us, reducing admissions is an important step to safeguard the future for our children, and their children.