TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Please don’t tell people what they should do, cuz it’s different for everyone. Instead, provide incentives for greener living. Mainers can’t afford all the fees!

I take commuter rail and the subway to work five days a week. I would love to see more cars on some of the peak schedule trains on the Fitchburg line. I would also like to see more frequent weekday evening trains. Generally, whenever I attend a professional meeting in Cambridge or Boston on a weekday evening, I end up taking Bus 70 home, because my journey falls between the wide gaps in the night train schedule. I understand some cities have smaller commuter rail trains with electric engines that run more frequently to better support non-peak times. Collecting ridership analytics on every train on every commuter rail line would help guide this.

I am OPPOSED to the Transportation Climate Initiative. I'm having a hard enough time affording gas to get to and from my job. Besides, have you looked at California, lately? Do we really want to imitate them?

This is absolutely unacceptable, ridiculous & something Maine people cannot afford. Shame on you Governor Mills for putting this state on the brink of bankruptcy & not working for the best interest of Mainers. Maine taxpayers are paying enough as it is.

This is just another way to steal from the citizens to build the government's power. The climate science is not proven, especially when so many studies are paid for by the government and "climate" industries.Two groups with their hand in the till. The greed of the politicians and their thieving cohorts is reprehensible.

I ask that tyou give urgent consideration to Transportation anc Climate initiave. Toady we are seeing and feeling and experiencing the negative impacts of climate change. As a mother with children who will inheret this climate, I must ask to to give full consideration to deviloing low carbo initiative for transportation. We have had the technology for many years and we are way too late to be at this stage. Please put action above greed in our current system. These initiatvies should also give us an oportunity for new businesses and education avenues for the future.

I am a scientist with over 35 years of experience in teaching and research in biology including environmental toxicology, such as air pollution. I strongly support the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) for several reasons:
1. TCI will bring much needed reductions in toxins from transportation and this pollution reduction will save lives and reduce health care costs.
Reducing the amount of commuter car traffic and replacing fossil fuel transit of goods and people with low-carbon methods reduces the toxins emitted from combustion engines in cars and trucks. For example, these toxins include nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds that harm lungs and also cause ozone formation, another substance that triggers asthma and heart attacks in sensitive people and scars lungs in healthy individuals. I have lived in cities with serious air pollution from traffic congestion and in rural towns with truck emissions and studied the peer-reviewed science of transportation pollution effects on public health. The scientific evidence is clear that a wide range of people need reductions in air pollution. For example, areas of Southwestern Pennsylvania have 10% of school children with asthma and about 50 % of people in the sensitive category because they have one or more of the following conditions: asthma, diabetes, lung impairment, cardiovascular illness or advanced age. TCI is critical because the alternatives of piecemeal change in transit and tinkering with combustion engines are too slow and ineffective to make reductions we need now in transportation toxins. Much of the technology to change transit is available; TCI provides the organization to implement it and accelerate cleaner transit systems.

2. TCI fosters job growth through American development and manufacturing of transportation innovations. Growth in this job sector requires the power of large scale projects fostered across all of the Mid-Atlantic and New England. For example, I lived many years in Pennsylvania and know many counties where underemployed workers have the skills to be reemployed in transportation and manufacturing jobs TCI will create. These workers are ready now to become part of projects, but investors and entrepreneurs need help to organize projects, especially across state borders. TCI provides this organization.

3. TCI builds better local economies through better access to employment, health care and education. Our economy suffers now because we need better public transportation and affordable housing near transit networks. I have seen how poor public transportation impairs quality of life when people cannot reliably get to jobs, the doctor or classes for vocational or other schools. For example, I have participated in many revisioning sessions in rural/suburban Pennsylvania where county officials admit they cannot overcome public transportation gaps that impair economic development. Now, as a resident of New Hampshire, I see similar problems in rural areas. This is a problem throughout Mid-Atlantic and New England states. TCI is essential to help small towns get this help quickly to stem the downward spiral in declining small towns.

4. The Fee and Reinvest component in TCI can be used to provide fair incentives to make the changes we need and have funds for continuing innovation. Those who criticize this approach are often large companies who cause transportation pollution and other problems, but do not pay their share of solving problems. No one state or even the federal government could act efficiently to provide incentives for coordinated change because laws and regulations take too many years to enact. With key incentives through TCI, however, those transportation companies that are willing to change could benefit.

Cynthia Walter, Ph.D.
22 West Concord St.
Dover, NH 03820

Dear Legislator,While the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance applauds Governor Charlie Baker and his administration’s efforts to reduce pollution in the transportation sector, we have serious concerns with the direction in which the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) is taking our state, all without explicit legislative approval.While taxpayers are the most obvious victims of this situation, individual legislators are greatly affected as well. Rank and file members are being stripped of their prerogatives and denied an opportunity to carry out the duty they were elected to perform. Taxpayers and constituents deserve more and you should demand more.Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Kathleen Theoharides claims the difference between TCI and a gas tax is the point of regulation. This is irrelevant to consumers who will soon be paying more at the pump for this regressive tax scheme. State Rep. William Straus, House Chairmanof the Transportation Committee, recently eluded to TCI as a gas tax, saying,“All states raise their gas tax the same amount at the same time and agree not to call it a gas tax, but I think the public is smarter than that.”This raises the concern that such a far-reaching tax could be implemented without explicit legislative approval process. In an October 1 story, theBoston Globereported that,“...state officials said they likely have authority under the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act to implement the agreement without such a vote.”We would argue that authorization, cast on a voice vote over 10 years ago, with no knowledge of today’s proposal, is not sufficient to enact such a significant piece of policy. Make no mistake: this is a very slippery slope for Massachusetts. Although this is still in the early stages, lawmakers from other states in the TCI agreement are seeking legislative approval. Governor Baker’s administration, whether legally required or not, should also act in good faith and seek legislative approval. If he doesn’t, it’s your job to hold him accountable. There must be an open and transparent legislative process on the details of the agreement.