TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

As a life long citizen of Maine, I strongly stand against the TCI. This is just another unfair tax on an already over taxed state. Maine is too large in area and low in population to have a viable public transportation system, nor are electric vehicles an alternative in this spacious, wintery climate.

While carbon emissions and general stewardship of our environment are important issues, PLEASE keep in mind when making policies that it is the real people, hard working people, that must bear the burden of the policies you make. We already pay more than 30 cents a gallon in gas tax. Please, please, please. No more! Electric cars are just not an option for some of us!

I support a strong plan to combat transportation pollution and carbon emissions. I am concerned about climate change, and I know that we can do better than just building bigger highways and encouraging more car trips. I especially care about clean-energy investments such as greenways in areas overburdened by pollution and where residents don't have good transportation access.

Thank you for this bipartisan work, setting a strong example for how to move us forward.

I urge you to adopt a strong TCI program. In order for the program to be strong, please enact the following:

A cap on carbon emissions of at least 25% by 2032

An increase in the minimum investment in overburdened and underserved communities (>35%)

Request that investments be put towards active transportation like better sidewalks, bicycle infrastructure, and high quality public transit

According to a recently released study by Harvard and other institutions, if the program is designed appropriately, up to 1,100 lives can be saved annually, and the region could see $11 billion in health benefits each year.

Thank you.

This is ill advised and will be disaterous for those Mainers that are already living on the edge. Those that are able to will have no choice but to move to another state, those who can't will have to rely on more public assistance to make ends meet. This is a lose, lose scenario for all but the wealthy.

Stop Maine involvement in TCI. Maine is a rural state and electric cars do not work for us. We are retired and can not afford a gas increase. We drive a pickup as our life style here in Maine requires a truck (fishing, camping, out door activities) We are Vacationland!! Electric cars are not conducive to outdoor activities. Most Mainers have commutes to their jobs and have no reasonable way to cut back on miles driven. We are a state with the oldest population in the country on limited incomes. If you want to encourage people/businesses into our state raising the cost to live in an already expensive place to live doesn't make sense. Portland is in southern Maine. There is so much more to Maine than Portland. The "other" Maine is rural, poorer and against TCI

We need clean transportation immediately. What we started in the 1970s should have been finished long before now. We need to build and sell electric vehicles to replace combustion engine buses, trucks and cars. I purchased an all-electric car, the Volkswagon eGolf and paid $20,000 for it after rebates. Not everyone can afford to buy a new car, however, even if it is only $20,000, so the government needs to give incentives to people so that they can afford them. Cities and towns across the country need to replace their old buses and city vehicles to electric vehicles. Companies that use trucks need to purchase electric trucks.

First we need to implement a carbon fee and dividend program that will tax any company that extracts fossil fuels based on the ton of greenhouse gases the extracted fuels will emit when burned. Once the tax is collected by the government, the government will rebate all of that money back to every American household in the form of a dividend check. To incentivize other countries to reduce their carbon footprint, a border tax should be imposed on imports again based on the ton of greenhouse gases that were emitted to produce that product. Once a carbon fee and dividend law is enacted, innovation will be unleashed and manufacturers of electric vehicles will flood the market with them and their prices will decrease.

There is no time to waste on this.