TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Hardworking Mainers can not afford the fuel hike that Governor Mills wants to impose. Outside of Cumberland County, the majority of Mainers are rural. That means driving distances just to get to work. Myself, I live in Belfast and used to have to commute to Bangor every days, a 40-mile 1 way trip. When Bush was in office and gas hit over $4 per gallon, I was forced to change to working 4 10+ hour days instead of 5 8-hour days just to save on the gas costs.

Governor Mills wants to send us back to those days, when people have to choose between paying for the gas to keep getting to work or paying other bills. It's unreasonable, and unwarranted. This is not California. The Democrats in the Portland area are NOT representative of Maine itself. This must NOT be permitted.

Maine is one of the most rural states in the country, with most people traveling for work. I’m 26 years old with an engineering degree and I must travel 110 miles from home to work. Taxes are not the answer, as we are already one of the top taxed states in the nation. If we continue to impose new taxes on Mainers you will not have to worry about charging stations because most people are going to leave. What we need are companies brining jobs to the people.

With an average per capita income in Maine of slightly over $53K and 25% of its residents receiving Social Security...myself included) it occurs to me that most residents would not be able to afford to buy a $55K vehicle, regardless of which fuel it uses! My income certainly would not allow me to buy one. Has this not occurred to anyone in the current administration? And, adding taxes onto already high gasoline prices would be punitive to those who are already financially struggling, just to enable those who CAN afford an expensive vehicle. This policy is like punishing someone who can only afford a used Chevy, in order to subsidize the driver of a Mercedes!

We can not afford another tax hike anywhere! We are tapped out. Electric cars use coal to create electricity. How is this even helping the environment. I’ve seen the electric fill-up station at LL Bean. Constantly empty. We car and truck drivers need a tax break. Stop trying to force us, through legislation, to do, act, eat, drive, heat, and live in a way that we don’t want to. This is not progressive. It’s oppressive and authoritarian.

I would rather NOT be taxed an additional .20 a gallon for gasoline by 2022
i have owned maine business for over 30 years
JANET MILLS HAS GIVEN SUBSIDIES TO PEOPLE WHO CAN ALREADY AFFORD TO BUY AN ELECTRIC CAR AND HAS NOW MADE IT MORE CONVENIENT TO CHARGE THEM AT HER NEW STATIONS, ALL WHILE SHE IS WORKING TO RAISE THE PRICES OF THE GASOLINE AVERAGE MAINERS NEED TO GET TO WORK. i am 100% against this!

My name is Chris Moulton from KennebunkportKennebunkport ME. I applaud Gov Mills for involving herself in the regional transportation design process. I want to see initiatives that benefit low-income and aging populations. It is encouraging to see bipartisan support for the project at a time when the disastrous impacts of climate change are evident on a daily basis. I am particularly interested to see every community widen more roads as they are refurbished to encourage safer walking and biking as alternatives to driving. I also strongly support incentives to accelerate the adoption of electric cars, trucks and buses. The technology is here and proven superior to fossil fuel vehicles at comparable cost. Let’s do everything we can to preserve what we love about our state while we still can. Soon it will be too late.

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.