TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Needs to be more streamlined/lower emissions commuting; easier biking/hiking alternative transportation. Less accentuation on making roads easier for business and more on people.

I am in support of this program. I urge you to join the initial group of states. Thank you.

Our transportation system is not working well. Though nobody wants higher taxes, I SUPPORT an increase in the gas tax of at least 15 cents/gallon immediately to get better infrastructure in place. PLEASE--end the gridlock!

make corporations who are sliming the environment and sickening people pay to fix up this mess! many of these industries are subsidized by taxpayer dollars. for years they've promoted a dialogue that puts the onus on the public to control their polluting habits. they have gaslighted the public. now is the time for corporate responsibility to clean up the mess they and politician's created!!!!

I have lived in Harris county, TX for more than 40 years. Highway keep getting more lanes and traffic continues to be a nightmare. someone must come up with a plan to move more people around without for cars and traffic congestion.

The Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) has many potential strengths -- in particular the fact that it will tackle carbon emissions on a regional basis. However, this bill must be a lot stronger. We are clearly in a climate emergency, and we need to take bold and wide-ranging actions now! As it now stands, about TCI is:
TOO LITTLE
1. The TCI does not address the carbon emissions generated by housing and heating. To be effective, it must be paired with other bills that cover these areas.
2. As proposed, TCI would reduce emissions from transportation 20-25% over 10 years. However, taking into account more efficient vehicles on the road by then, TCI would drop emissions only 1-6% beyond decreases in vehicle emissions expected by Governor Baker's administration. So not only is this “decrease” deceptive, it is nowhere near enough to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
3. The large emissions from jet fuel are not included in TCI.
TOO LATE
4. It will take several years before TCI will be implemented. Getting all the states to agree on terms and figuring out the logistics will be a long and complicated process. These negotiations will also involve a lot of compromise, so that the final plan may not have the stringent emission reductions that we need.
TOO VAGUE AND NOT EQUITABLE
5. The expenditure of TCI funds is not specified. Without clear, enforceable, and equitable policies, TCI will create a regressive gasoline tax that will hit moderate- and low-income and rural residents the hardest. The expenditures must be specified now – not left up to the governor or some future committee. TCI policy regulations in Massachusetts and other states should include the same equitable plans that are specified in the Benson Bill, H2810 in order to:
a. ensure that low- and moderate-income families and rural residents do not bear an unfair financial burden that they can ill afford;
b. support low-income communities to reduce their emissions and to strengthen their infrastructure in the face of the consequences of climate change.

We face devastating and irreversible effects of climate change! We are all in this together and cannot waste time “kicking the can down the road.” TCI has a lot of potential, but it must be paired with H2810 in order to be more ambitious, immediate, and equitable!!

Involve the community in any decision-making processes FIRST! — and that the community will be the FIRST!

Agency goals should be to establish ways to talk more directly with environmental justice communities, which can be “co-opted” by outside groups pushing their own agendas. “We need to peel past that and really get to the communities themselves and make sure that they’re hearing us—and, as importantly or more importantly, we’re hearing them.” Garvin says individuals DNREC has interacted previously with on issues of environmental justice. The event was not promoted publicly, but that it is not a closed meeting.

Please stand up for fence-line communities in the TCI process in the Mid-Atlantic.

Why am I and others just hearing about this Policy in the community after the fact?

Dear Governor Baker:

As a senior citizen on a fixed income, I am writing in support of the Transportation Climate Initiative currently under review.

Before I retired, I worked in transportation demand management, both as the executive director of a TMA, and as the commuter services contractor for Pfizer. In the latter role, I helped facilitate the implementation of an MBTA pass program to accompany the transition of Pfizer's Cambridge work force from Alewife to Kendall Square.

I am keenly aware of the role of transportation (vis-a-vis greenhouse gas emissions) in the climate crisis and am excited to see TCI come to fruition.

Hopefully, there is enough political will across the board to approve TCI and start planning as soon as possible.

Thank you.