TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Since the fossil fuel industry receives huge subsidies per the Revenue Act of 1913, it's time to sunset these. Doing so ends corporate welfare which seems preferable to using the word "tax". A carbon tax would be good but may not be passed under the current administration. Ending a subsidy (corporate welfare) might be more palatable. A carbon tax on imported fossil fuel may be appropriate.

From a local point of view, we should ease the transition to electric cars. There should be encouragement or subsidies for workplace charging stations, and lots of them. All new homes and apartment complexes should incorporate 220V outlets conveniently located in parking areas. See the Atlanta, GA, ordinance.

We should encourage development of Thorium based nuclear reactors. These are inherently safe and can consume nuclear waste.

We should encourage Electric Vehicles that can feed energy back to the grid (V2G). This could reduce or eliminate need for utility sized batteries. A lot of cars supplying a small amount of energy each could be very effective. An initial subsidy would kick start this technology. It must be accompanied by net metering.

It's come to my attention that fluoride based refrigerants are the single largest contributor to global warming. R290a is a propane based refrigerant. A typical automobile uses less than two pounds of refrigerant. R290a can be used as a direct replacement for HC134a. Considering the fact that most automobiles have several pounds of highly inflammable gasoline or diesel fuel, and petroleum oils in their hot engine compartments, the addition of a small amount of propane in a sealed system seems inconsequential. The most common failure in air conditioning systems is a slow leak, resulting in the loss of refrigerant over a period of about one year. This amount of leakage of propane would be inconsequential, especially considering that the greenhouse effect from R290a is about 600 times less than conventional fluorocarbons. In a system designed from scratch it should be possible to locate the evaporator in a safe location with heat dissipation being transferred through an antifreeze based heat exchanger. I suggest high priority be given to elimination of fluorocarbon refrigerants.

I have used public transportation for most of my life. I have enjoyed those commutes more than when I didn't have the option of public transport to get to and from work. Furthermore, it is necessary to achieve stability for the climate, and indeed for our way of life.
Please support this initiative.

The Transportation Climate Initiative has proposed using a cap-and-invest approach to reduce pollution from the transportation sector.This is a carbon pricing approach. While theoretically attractive, there are a number of practical reasons that carbon pricing will not work as theorized: In addition, The Regulatory Analysis Project (RAP) recently completed a relevant study: "Economic Benefits and Energy Savings through Low-Cost Carbon Management for Vermont" that raises additional relevant concerns. Other relevant concerns are discussed in the well-written attachment provided. I implore you to read it thoroughly, incorporating the points raised in your planning process.

Retired here in south western Pennsylvania which has some of the dirtiest air in the country. I worked for the Air Pollution Control Bureau back in the early seventies and attended Duquesne University on an EPA Fellowship earning a MS in chemisty. We had poor air quality then and still have poor air quality. I would like to think that we have better air quality fifty years later but that doesn't seem to be the case. I have two grown children that are both asthmatic, most likely to the poor air quality when they were growing up. The general health of most citizens here in western Pennsylvania could be better if the air quality would improve.

As a person who believes in localizing as many resources and services as possible in order to reach a self sustaining model as posed by the Strong Towns ideology(strongtowns.org), I believe prioritization of public transportation is a must, and therefore supporting this course of action is a must do.

Let the market place take a natural course. It is unfair to penalize the use of one product to subsidize another. Also electric and natural or propane vehicles are not paying a tax.