TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

If gas is taxes more or increased, then Maine economy will collapse. Most people drive from very rural areas to make the living they need to survive. This would largely impact everyone. Including mine your families. I think this could lead us down a very expensive road. We are already the most taxed state in the union with a depleted work force and aging population. There are better ways to combat what is trying to be fought by this ideas. Hurting the lively hood of avergae Mainers is like cutting your feet off. If you don't have your feet, how can you walk. The lower end of Mainers keeps this economy running. Just my thought. Please don't do this. Also the research shows electric cars are not feasible in this climate nor are they in our geo-eco nomical sense

Our family supports TCI and would like to see it implemented as soon as possible.

you are a one term, Lapage for governor. you have proved to Maine that liberalism is dressed up dictatorship

Please Support the Transportation and Climate Initiative. TCI benefits can and should help make Vermont more affordable for Vermonters living on the margins.

We first need to repair current infrastructure ASAP while pondering the issue of what transportation should be like in view of climate change issues.

Dear TCI Team,

Our Climate is so grateful for your hard work to expand regional carbon pricing to a new sector of the economy and to do so in an inclusive, collaborative, bipartisan manner. On the whole, we stand by the comments submitted by the larger Massachusetts Campaign for a Clean Energy Future, particularly their two fundamental values that a carbon price must be science-based and equitable. However, we’d like to note several additional areas of concern:

1. Both the current TCI draft and the Massachusetts campaign document refer to RGGI as an effective precedent to emulate in several ways. We would like to reiterate that, for all the revenue RGGI has generated, we have yet to find a single economist who argues that the RGGI price ($5.20/ton at the Sept 2019 auction) has been high enough to drive the emission reductions needed to mitigate the climate crisis. This argument is further spelled out in this article from Vox <https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/2/28/14741384/rggi-explained>

When it comes to setting a cap, we think TCI should set an aggressive maximum of carbon neutrality by 2050, with interim targets of 45% emission reductions by 2030 that all participating states must adhere to. States can then individually choose to be more ambitious if they wish, but we must provide states where industry is strong the legal mandate to fight the climate crisis.

We are also very concerned about the language around “cap flexibility” and “set asides.” A responsible system must plan for what history has taught us--that industry will fight tooth and nail to dodge its financial responsibilities. The MA campaign critiques on limiting cap flexibility and banking of permits are correct but don’t go far enough. In a climate emergency, we should not allow for flexibility, set asides, or banking, period. Industry must not be given wiggle room.

2. In MA, we are very proud of the design of H.2810 which uniquely proposes redistribution of 70% of its funds directly to families to financially equip them to make greener decisions. These rebates are weighted by income to ensure financial protections for the low-income communities most affected by climate change. This is the only carbon pricing bill to my knowledge that has received explicit support from Environmental Justice organizations in MA, and we must consider whether a progressive rebate structure is possible in TCI to ensure that no family is left in a difficult situation.

Meanwhile, our team in New York is quite concerned that New York Renews Coalition which just passed the CLCPA and is designing the CCIA, will face similar complications to MA. The careful work to build relationships with EJ communities for our state level prices does not seem to be transferring to the TCI process. This is partially why NY’s participation in TCI is currently tenuous.

In my previous commentary, I mentioned the concerns of our partners at the Climate Justice Alliance. Since that time, they have released another set of criticisms on use of Cap and Invest as a structure <https://climatejusticealliance.org/climate-justice-alliance-disappointed-disingenuous-policy-design-principles-proposed-transportation-climate-initiative-tci/>. TCI must provide specific allowances and guidelines for the equitable use of funds that it invests and will give local Green Justice communities the power to design a way to use those resources that meets their needs as they see them, not as the TCI administrators perceive them.


Thank you so much,
Our Climate

Dear Governor and Mass Legislators,
I am writing to oppose the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) gasoline tax, which is being considered outside the normal legislative process. The TCI claims to address a crisis that does not exist. The earth, and its climate, is sustaining more people, living longer and in better health than ever before in human history. Before passing new taxes, be mindful that climate science is in its infancy and the doomsday environmental predictions of the last half century have always been wrong, whether acid rain, the zero population movement, ozone depletion, nuclear power, the earth is running out of fossil fuels. Until more is known and the theories have been tested and retested, don't pass the TCI, if for no other reason than it will disproportionately hurt the less affluent in our state.

I grew up in the pre-EPA pollution when “smog” was a household word, and saw the visible difference in the air when anti-pollution protections were put into place. Clean air is our most basic need. Please go forward with more protections, and reverse this backward trend into allowing more poisons into our every breath!