TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Please, Governor Scott. Join the TCI. Good for the environment and good for the economy!

Having lived in Europe for ten years, we learned a lot about how the Germans and the Dutch have embraced public transit options. While offering their citizens a safe, cost effective and convenient way to get to work, shopping, the airport, etc, they have also enjoyed the benefits of cleaner air, less traffic, and a better overall quality of life.

We very quickly become enthusiastic users of the Frankfurt underground and streetcars. While in Amsterdam, their trams and buses provided an excellent way to get around. It was so good, we lived without a car - and were incredibly happy about it.

Now that we are back in the US, we see just how far behind our country is. It's clear that the fossil fuel lobbyists have a stranglehold on our politicians. There has been a hugely disappointing lack of progress. Despite this we've got to move ahead and take this opportunity to invest for our future. Let's work with these other states so that we can leverage the synergies and investment to make a transportation system that moves us into the future rather than keeping us locked in the past (and our cars) in the service of the fossil fuel industry. Let's move ahead with the TCI.
Thank you.

This is not a tax on gasoline and diesel. This is a more accurate accounting of the true cost of gasoline and diesel. It is an elimination of the free-ride subsidy gasoline and diesel have enjoyed for years. It’s time for us to stop pretending that using gasoline and diesel has no cost: it does.

The funds collected don’t just vanish, either. The TCI proposal directs them in a productive way to clean up the transportation system, which benefits us all, and will begin paying off immediately.

Gas prices will not skyrocket. Any increases the distributors pass on will be well below the normal fluctuations we all live with. Even setting the highest cap with 25% reduction will be almost unnoticeable at the pump. Distributors will continue to compete with each other on price. Let the free market rule!

Some say this will have a negligible effect on reducing emissions. This argument assumes a huge uptake of EV’s and maintaining current CAFE mileage standards, both of which the Trump administration is working against. We should think of the TCI proposal as an insurance policy against the mischief and backsliding supported by fossil fuel interests.

It’s time to start being responsible for our actions.

I own and operate a small business in Maine. To service our customers we travel many miles per year on our fleet of vehicles. Maine is already at a competitive disadvantage due to our geographical make-up, high cost of electricity and one of the highest overall tax rates in the Union.



We have limited public transportation which require most folks from Maine to commute via vehicle to and from work. In addition, we have to rely on our vehicles to purchase groceries, visit local clothing stores, transport our children to school events, etc.. This list goes on and on. We cannot simply park our vehicles and chose another mode of transportation.



To include Maine in this initiative will be catastrophic to our economy. As a business owner I will be forced to pass this cost on to my Customers. They in turn will have less disposable income to fuel the economy in Maine. My Customers already have a struggle to pay their fuel bills. I cannot speak to how this will impact other states, but I suspect outside of the large cities (Which already have large participation rates in public transportation) the rural areas will be in a similar situation as many of us in Maine.

As a Maine native and an individual that cares deeply about our environment I would urge everyone to not implement policies such as this upon the residents of Maine and New England. Fuel surcharges and taxes are deeply regressive in nature and would hit the poor and working poor of this region the hardest. From primary transportation costs to downstream cost increases in food and consumer goods this scheme will hurt the most vulnerable among us. Carbon control and mitigation can be achieved via passive means such as maintaining green space, planting trees, protecting small family farms that engage in organic and regenerative farming practices.
Finally cap and trade schemes are unproven as to their effectiveness and offer little more than carbon indulgences to those that emit.

My name is Sarah and I am a volunteer with Citizens' Climate Lobby. I live in West Chesterfield, New Hampshire and support a price on carbon. Climate change is the biggest threat humankind has ever faced and it requires us to take swift action. As stated in the 2018 I.P.C.C. report, the world has fewer than twelve years in which to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least 45% below 2017 levels.

According to over three thousand five hundred of the world's leading economists, putting a price on carbon is the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The price should be high enough to, at a minimum, reach the goals outlined in the I.P.C.C. report. The implementation should not harm those in lower income brackets.

I support TCI and am appreciative that it is bipartisan in nature. The changing climate does not discriminate. It affects all of us regardless of political affiliation, race, gender, age, income, ethnicity, nationality or species. We all benefit from a stable climate and we will all suffer as our climate becomes less stable.

The TCI is very important for this state. Maine should use TCI as an opportunity to invest in local transportation solutions that help Maine people get to where they need to go in an affordable way that’s good for our environment. Mainers deserve creative new choices and new investments to meet our transportation needs; the one thing we know is that pouring pollution into the atmosphere and sending our hard-earned money out of state for the oil that causes that pollution are NOT the way forward. Maine needs an ambitious plan to reduce climate-changing transportation pollution,. Working together with neighboring states makes sense.

The economic benefits could be profound. Maine can see significant economic, health, and environmental benefits by transitioning to cleaner and more efficient transportation options through adoption of TCI. We must address climate change now with workable solutions. TCI is one of them!

Maine people deserve safe, clean, modern transportation solutions that are affordable, reliable, and reduce air pollution.
We need transportation solutions that deliver real economic, environmental, and community benefits. The Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), has gained widespread momentum over the past few months and our family supports this important, and potentially historic climate policy. With the climate crisis fully underway we must support clean transportation solutions!

Our outdated transportation system is Maine’s largest source of climate pollution—and it doesn’t even meet the needs of Maine people. Maine people deserve clean, modern, affordable transportation options that deliver economic, health, and climate benefits to local communities. Finally, tt makes perfect sense for Maine to work with neighboring states through TCI’s bipartisan, proven policy model.
TCI will be in development for many months, but the core idea is based on the tremendously successful Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Through RGGI, Northeastern states dramatically reduced power plant pollution and generated revenue Maine has used to support energy efficiency and weatherization investments through Efficiency Maine. Applying the same “cap and invest” approach to transportation would help Maine redirect some of the $5 billion a year we send out of state to fossil fuel companies into our local communities and sustainable transportation solutions.

Mainers overwhelmingly support bipartisan, science-based, regional solutions to our big transportation and climate challenges and we hope that you will too!

Partnership for the Public Good is a community-based think tank with over 290 partner organizations. Many of our partners are concerned with both ecological justice and transportation issues. We have released several reports on these issues. Buffalo faces significant challenges when it comes to public transit. Over 50,000 households in our region lack access to a car, yet over half of the region's jobs are NOT accessible by public transit. Improving public transit in our region is imperative for promoting economic development, reducing racial disparities, fighting poverty, and decreasing air pollution. As part of your planning process, we implore you to incorporate a more robust busing system (more buses, more routes, and more frequency) as well a suggestion to expand the light rail through the east side of Buffalo to the airport. This addition will take advantage of existing public right of ways to make our public transit more accessible and efficient. We also ask that New York State reexamine its funding structure to more equitably fund WNY public transit.