TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

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 also 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. An ambitious plan to reduce climate-changing transportation pollution is desperately needed and working together with neighboring states makes all kinds of sense. Maine could see significant economic, health, and environmental benefits by transitioning to cleaner and more efficient transportation options through adoption of TCI. PLEASE help us get off fossil fuel!!

Leave the climate and energy initiatives to the real experts in the industry. Block politicians from having anything to do with these industries. Government policies destroy everything they touch.

This is an ILLEGAL GAS TAX. The voters of Massachusetts rejected this concept in 2014. The proposed “fee” (tax) needs to go through the appropriate legislative process. In addition, funding of these progressive initiatives should come from sources other than overburdened taxpayers. STOP.

We need:
- more public transit and electric vehicle infrastructure in rural areas
- expansion of commuter rail, electric vehicles, and streets in the suburbs that are safe, walkable, and bikeable
- Sustainable and equitable housing near transit and electric bus fleets in urban communities

Carbon reduction is a must. If you believe the science and the environmental impacts then it's a win. If you believe in the bottom line approach then it's a win. Either way. Having clean, safe and smart transportation alternatives to fossil fuel-driven transport is a great first step in enabling human powered transport or the obvious need for cleaner, more efficient alternatives for current modes.

The only way to move forward is to stop borrowing carbon from the future. Let's be smart.

My name is John Cushman and I live in Norwich, Vermont. I’m writing to encourage you to produce a strong Transportation Climate Initiative memorandum of understanding so that our leaders in our state can use it as an effective, affordable and equitable tool to meet our science-based climate goals.

It is in the interest of Vermont’s citizens to reduce our own emissions of carbon dioxide to zero as rapidly as possible, as recommended and explained by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in keeping with the Paris Agreement. Doing so in a regional framework will maintain our state’s role as a leader. Not participating will turn us into a laggard.

Much of these emissions come from transportation, and while all economic sectors must share the commitment to action, the TCI, as a regional plan model thoughtfully on our experiences with electricity in the Northeast, is an economically sound way of doing so.

Not to participate would pose the risk that we Vermonters would pay part of the price of a regional market-based approach to capping pollution and investing the proceeds of allowance auctions.

Putting a price on carbon through a well designed cap-and-invest approach is economically rational because it drives the lowest cost solutions to the front of the line -- kind of like a car pool lane on a highway. Using the proceeds to pay for modern, efficient transportation infrastructure makes the most sense, and can be designed to protect the most vulnerable from unjust impacts.

Our state agencies can make this work.

For example, the Department of Public Health recently reported that we can save the lives of 2,000 Vermonters in the coming 30 years, and save more than $1 billion in health related costs, if in the coming 10 years we build up our fleet of electric vehicles, cut our solo car trips, and double our walking, biking and bus trips from ten years ago. Those are among the goals of our state’s comprehensive energy plan, and the TCI should be structured to help us meet them.

You should keep your ears and your minds open. Don’t focus on the special interest pleadings of the fossil fuel industry and the Koch brothers misinformation network. Remember, fossil energy is not cheap when you stop treating pollution like a freebie!

Instead, listen to real public interest groups! They want to make the TCI work -- to base it on peer reviewed science, to use the power of the marketplace for sound decisions, to build in a just transition for workers and people with less money, and to make Vermont a good neighbor.

And please keep the doors open to citizens. In Norwich we have voted to reverse our town’s carbon footprint. We have voted to incorporate climate action in every aspect of our town planning, including transportation. We have turned out on the street and in local meetings to demand action based on science. It’s the same in towns all over Vermont. Give us the tools!

Mass transportation is good for the environment and good for people. The fossil fuel industry has lobbied and propagandized everyone away from the most efficient and enlightened form of transportation in order to peddle WASTE and POLLUTION.