TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

I support the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). This is both a regional and national problem. How can anyone think otherwise. Duh! As one measure, I would like to see government begin raising—by a large margin—the costs of fossil fuels over a period of years as advocated in the attached letter published this past September by the Ithaca Journal (NY) by my friend, Richard "Dick" Booth. Dick is an environmental lawyer who teaches in Cornell University’s Department of City and Regional Planning. In recommending this, I recognize that doing this will not be easy—particularly for low income, margin households, but it needs to somehow begun ASAP and with some sort of accommodations for households that will mitigate, or soften, the impact on them.

Once again the people of Massachusetts are NOT being represented by the self serving idiots that unfortunately have been elected to do so. This is nothing more than another shakedown of the people of this state. The total disregard of the laws is absolutely amazing by the greedy unlawful and deceitful thieves we have representing us. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You are nothing more than pigs wallowing in the crap that you have made this state overflow with.

Our senior US Senator and former Governor has already called us the "tailpipe of the nation," referring to the noxious emissions that come our way. We have high rates of asthma in our State, which is almost certainly related to air quality, and diabetes, which may be related to particulate pollution. Given the vital importance of public transportation to each State in our region, to the region as a whole, and to our contribution to the rest of the nation, it is absolutely vital that air quality be a serious consideration when planning and implementing transportation plans. It is critical for our future that we develop and utilize available and developing technologies to have mass transit systems--municipal to interstate--that are less dependent on fossil fuels than the current ones.

This initiative is such a stupendously bad idea, it's hard to know where to start... Aside from the fact that it will not make any measurable improvement in global CO2 levels and/or the average global temperature, it will definitely serve to punish the working class and lower income population by causing the fossil fuel industry to transfer the additional costs onto the public; while revenue generated from the program will be squandered by the state, as is always the case.

We need to do everything we can to save our beloved earth from what we are doing to it. Free bus transit is a good idea for my city. We have a lot of walkable streets but probably should assess all the neighborhoods both in the city and the suburbs. Also as a resident in the city I see a lot of buses but don't know how accessible they are in the suburbs. I have also wondered if more frequent smaller buses might make sense.

We can cut poverty and pollution at the same time. We urge you to design a regional program that prioritizes the needs of communities overburdened with pollution and underserved in mobility options. We also need a community-led air monitoring program especially in the pollution hot spots to make sure we know about the status of air quality and what kinds of pollutants need to be addressed.

If the States in this Initiative are serious about our commitments to reduce our CO2 emissions, the TCI must include incentives or tax rebates for the oldest of all the Greens, geothermal. It has been around since the 1950's and very few people are even aware of it. I installed a geothermal heating system back in '08 and it's been paid for since 2018 with savings from zero gas deliveries over that time. New construction would be the easiest target for incentives, as the wells needed for the system could be drilled within the home's or business's building footprint. Retrofits are a bit harder(that is what I had to do), but they could be popular too with incentives to change from fossils. Please consider this important system type when finalizing this important Bill. Thank-you.
Sincerely,
Kevin Downey

How much more tax are you adding per gallon of gasoline for this :initiative"? Is the public going to be made aware of the additional taxes?

Climate change is the existential threat and transportation is the largest contributor. Do something please