TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

The attached comments are a re-submission of comments previously submitted on 10/30/2020, now on behalf of 200 organizations from across the 13 TCI jurisdictions, stating our support for an ambitious and equitable TCI program that includes strong safeguards and guarantees for overburdened and underserved communities.

Financing Green Infrastructure moving toward a low-carbon economy is key. Green Bonds and loans are becoming a major market. Unfortunately many municipalities and corporations know very little about these financial instruments and the emerging global standards. The initiative should add information sharing on this topic to its existing workshops, especially energy and transportation.

Attached is a rather dated article on De-risking Green Bond Deals written for Environmental Law in New York. This article is being updated with green Muni bonds in mind.

Phil Ludvigsen, Ph.D.

Reducing fossil fuel emissions is good for the planet. We need to move forward when we can and take actions to solve the climate crisis at hand.

I would like the Commonwealth of PA to join the plan to design a regional low-carbon transportation policy proposal capping and reducing carbon emissions from the combustion of transportation fuels using a cap-and-invest program or other pricing mechanism. I am hopeful policy development process could be completed within one year, after which each jurisdiction will decide whether to adopt and implement the policy.

The policy MUST include a strong component of equity by prioritizing clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution and/or for those who don't have access.

I am grateful and appreciate the bipartisan nature of this project, despite the Federal government's obscene roll-backs.

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 an improved transportation system to reduce noise and pollution, especially in our cities, but everywhere. We need the improved health that cleaner air and water will bring. We need the improved quality of life that quieter streets will bring. Most importantly, we need the reduction of global warming that using much less fossil fuel for transportation can bring.

Only a major shift can bring the degree of change necessary. I urge you to develop more rapid transit, and make it powered electrically, so green energy can be the source, not fossil fuels. The amount of wind and solar power generation must be increased rapidly, along with the distribution system to move the power to where it's needed. The distributed nature of renewable sources means some of the generation will be nearer the suburban and rural places where it is used, which should improve the reliability of the power grid and lower overall cost.

I urge more charging locations be built for electric street vehicles. I urge electrifying all rail operations in the region, with the possible exception of branch lines with less than one train a day. Electric railways have been practical for a century or more. We dismantled some electrical rail systems in the Rocky Mountains, instead of adding more miles to them. Diesel locomotives seemed the cheaper, more flexible choice, but have helped bring us to the current, unsustainable situation we are in. It's time our transportation systems were modernized to be as good or better than the Europeans' and Japanese'!

Thank you

As a coastal state with water on 3 sides, it behooves us to change the character and emissions standards of our transportation system. We absolutely need more mass transit and more EVs to do our part in keeping down the rising sea levels. The Bergen Record had an article this last summer that put a possible more than 26 Super Storm Sandys by 2100. Investment now, by comparison, looks cheap.