TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

I would like to give comments regarding Maine’s involvement with the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) as well as the three specific question areas of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

As a former Saco city councilor, current chair of the Saco Economic Development Commission, active board member of the Saco Main Street organization, Saco representative on the BSOOB Transit Committee and a small business owner with a degree in Engineering Technology, I believe I am well qualified to speak to this issue.

I commend Governor Mills and her attention to matters surrounding climate change and the potential harmful effects that rising CO2 levels have on the environment. However, I do not believe that CO2 alone, not to mention human or animal activity on CO2 levels are the most significant causes to climate change.

Please consider this amazing fact from Earth Sky, posted on May 22, 2019 titled: Magnetic North Is Shifting Fast...

“We already know that the magnetic pole moves. Both poles have wandered ever since the Earth existed. In fact, the poles even flip over, with north becoming south and south become in north.”

Also consider that the physical mechanism able to potentially explain the connection of Earth’s magnetic field to climate change is still an open issue.

From the Institute de Physique du Globe de Paris: “No forcing factor, be it changes in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere or changes in cosmic ray flux modulated by solar activity and geo magnetism, or possibly other factors , can at present be neglected or shown to be the overwhelming single driver of climate change in past centuries. Intensive data acquisition is required to further probe indications that the Earth’s and Sun’s magnetic fields may have significant bearing on climate change at certain time scales.” Source: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 253, ticket 3-4, p 328-339 (2007).

And this research article titled: New perspectives in the study of Earth’s magnetic field and climate connection, S.A. Campuzano, A. DeSantis, F.J. Paton Carrasco, M.L. Osete, E. Qamili (2018)...”There is a 90% confidence level that the magnetic field does impact the climate system including sea level rise.”

Now let me focus on the three questions in regard to the MOU.

Question 1: Setting starting levels and the trajectory for a regional cap on CO2 emissions from transportation fuels would be a variable construct that may prove unreliable if magnetic shifts are actually the larger issue at hand. Science must continue to focus attention on CO2 levels, but with a broader perspective. I believe a regional cap is difficult to target given the broader context. The question should be, “Given that current transportation fuels are a limited source, what research and innovation are being done now to find and implement alternatives to cleaner fuels and transportation needs?” This type of data and development is more concrete and effective. I know that research has been done on the harmful health effects that these fuels have on the population, but I cannot find the data to support these claims in the TCI, MOU or the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) nor can I find relevant information for the claims made to support the TCI. I believe these documents have overly dramatized the concerns in an effort to push policies that will make our poorer populations even more destitute when they are taxed accordingly.

Question 2: If we reframe Question 1 to be as suggested, then Question 2 becomes irrelevant. However, goals could be set to help R&D methods and implementation. Communities in the region would possibly welcome the NEMS information when considering the changes to over all transportation needs. For instance, I know that our new electric buses in Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach will be a welcome addition, but it remains to be seen if the very cold temperatures that occur frequently in our region will allow them to run at all during below freezing temperatures. This would be a major inconvenience to those who rely on mass transit. Also, as we in Saco consider our work force needs and the higher density housing clusters in our urban core, what will be the impact of the transportation being desired? I can tell you that the BSOOB Transit Committee is just barely scratching the surface of this issue, and yet we envision some amazing progress that only our communities can come together to solve. What a shame it would be to tax everyone indiscriminately in an effort to pool funds that a much larger and more populated region and Maine would be competing for. Municipalities would still need to increase certain fees and costs locally to pay for any shortfall from a TCI “grant”.

Question 3: Stability mechanisms for emissions and pricing should not be considered given the context that CO2 levels are only one factor among many. Nothing remains stable for long and we are fools to believe even 50% in these projected models.

As Maine’s population ages, their income becomes less resistant to price increases. I saw first hand when I served as a city councilor how the elderly were the first people to complain when the property tax rate would increase. They cannot afford higher costs of living.

Let’s work on a system of information sharing instead, and learn about what other communities are implementing when local business, government and citizens take their vision of better communities into their own hands...Yes, we are doing it ALL THE TIME! AND IT IS WORKING.

The United States saw the largest decline in energy related CO2 emissions in 2019 on a country basis according to the International Energy Agency, down almost 1 Gt from their peak in the year 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period.

Governor Mills and our state representatives must not enter into this TCI. It is a financial risk that our citizens cannot be allowed to bear.

This is a bad deal for Maine, people already struggle to put fuel in their vehicles, we NEED lower fuel prices, not higher!

There is no single thing we can do to stop climate change, but if we do many things we can slow it. Please do anything, no- EVERYTHING, you can to slow the impending disasters.

Please consider that many who wish not to see a rise in personal fuel cost have not considered the true cost the present climate crisis we face will bring... not only economically to themselves but to the environment and future generations. It is our younger generations who will be experiencing the devastation of our present behavior and inaction, and who will be bearing a cost far greater than the few dollars increase a tank of gas may require. It is not their fault. They are not being apprised as to what is truly happening. It is imperative that a regional low-carbon transportation policy proposal be designed that would cap and reduce carbon emissions from the combustion of transportation fuels through a cap-and-invest program or other pricing mechanism… [and]… to complete the policy development process within one year, after which each jurisdiction will decide whether to adopt and implement the policy. Thank you for attending to this very urgent matter.

I support the TCI.
Vermonters will likely pay TCI’s compliance costs whether Gov. Scott joins the program or not, because Vermont imports 100% of its fossil fuels from other states, and many of those states will join TCI and pass on their costs to consumers further down the distribution chain. Because 20-25% of the fossil fuels sold in Vermont are sold to out-of-state travelers and TCI proceeds will be distributed based on fuel sales within each jurisdiction, Vermont will receive back more in revenues than Vermonters contribute. Since Vermonters will pay for TCI’s costs whether or not we join, we should opt in and receive back more than we contribute.
TCI’s first-decade regional benefits include:
· Increases in gross domestic product (GDP), disposable personal income (DPI) and employment;
· Public health benefits from cleaner air valued at $3 billion - $10 billion; and
· A 20-25% reduction in greenhouse gas pollution from cars and trucks.
The Vermont-specific benefits include:
· $18 to $80 million in annual revenues to invest in low-carbon transportation options;
· More money from the program each year than Vermonters contribute; and
· The opportunity to make the state more affordable for low-income and rural Vermonters by lessening dependence on imported, polluting and expensive fossil fuels.
We need to act on climate change now. TCI is a good start.

Your initiative is perplexing on many fronts, which I frankly find quite disturbing and short-sighted. This initiative obviously has money and/or grants behind it. Your obvious intent is to not only curb emissions, but to curb the use of gasoline and oil. As a writer, author and someone who has extensively researched more holistic ways to live, I find it amazing that groups and initiatives like yours outright FAIL to attempt to adopt and rebuild Nikola Tesla's 'free energy' tower, "Wardenclyffe". This tower and those like it would outright END the need for oil, gasoline, and even most utility companies. Nikola Tesla's tower was funded by the great J.P. Morgan - because it worked! He used it to recreate the aurora borealis over the skies of Long Island. Nikola Tesla invented the radio, A/C power, the Tesla coil, the remote control, neon lights, wireless power, and on, and on. Do you really think his tower wouldn't have worked? His aim was to light the world that was still dark, and give free energy and power to the poor, which would have ended poverty for over 100 years had greed and suppression not taken hold of America. Examples of Tesla's radiant energy invention are plentiful on Youtube. Yet, movements like this silly and obtuse Transportation and Climate Initiative only seek to further burden 'the people'; you only seek to implement more hardship and struggle on 'the people', as this initiative would surely raise taxes and financial burden.

What do you really believe? That if you burden others and make life more difficult for others you will succeed? Karma - and energy - do not operate in this manner. Do you think you know more than the people, and you ought to tell the people how to live their lives? This is an awful line of reasoning. Those who comprise our society who are already struggling to survive and live, would have to pay more to survive because of initiatives like this one that you put forth. I suspect that you don't want to take on big corporations and big oil; it appears that would be too much for you because it is much easier just to take on 'the people', and make their lives more difficult with higher costs of living, and you do it without showing your face, so they never know who you are. That is not policy or initiative, that is cowardice, and disingenuous behavior devoid of integrity. It is a disenfranchisement of the people, and their right to choose. Have the courage to do it big and do it right. You ought to instead be implementing a natural and CHEAPER alternative (Tesla's Wardenclyffe) that SAVES the people money and lifts them out of poverty. Your initiative would increase costs and thus poverty; and yet...I bet the architects of this initiative rail against the rich and perceptibly elite. Is this not hypocritical?

Several years ago the Cassini spacecraft detected that the rings around Saturn were eroding. Is this from humans? Is this due to what government defines as 'climate change'? No, it is not. The truth is that we are not experiencing climate change, but rather 'COSMIC CHANGE'. Yes, there are changes to our weather, but some of this is attributed to geoengineering, and world governments playing God with the weather, something even Nikola Tesla said was possible, because all weather is energy. Geoengineering is making the weather and humidity even worse, because it is creating a faux lower atmosphere with the metal particulates and aerosols that are making northeastern summers more humid, and thus more unhealthy; it is also not wholly safe for humans to ingest the particulates from geoengineering. Many climate activists scream the polar caps are melting. The ice is melting! I ask you: What brought us the ice caps? Answer: The last major ice age. What happened before the ice age? Well...there wasn't any ice! Rather the earth was temperate and warm, and guess what else? GREEN! Yes, oceans rose, but the earth was more plush.

Your Transportation and Climate Initiative is downright awful. It will do nothing except raise the costs of living for a state - Rhode Island - that is already last or near last in every important economic category, and rife with corruption. I respectfully urge you to rethink it. And I dare you to rebuild Tesla's Wardenclyffe and give natural, FREE power to world. Corporations, oil companies and utility companies give off far more emissions than daily citizens anywhere. The announcement of 'zero-point energy aircrafts' is an indirect admission that 'free energy' is a real phenomena that can be harvested. Thus, this energy that would beam from Nikola Tesla's power would be FREE, natural, and would not burden anyone. It would help to eliminate greed, and perhaps free people in poverty in the inner cities, who pay hundreds every month for gas, electricity and heat. Think about it, please. This initiative is wrong, and bad. It is not good for the people. It is not utilitarian in nature. It is empty and set in misconceptions. Thank you for your time.

As a tax preparer in rural western Maine, I have insight into how this misguided increase in tax will hurt the people of western Maine. I have many clients who have to travel for work, whether it be to BIW, or in the construction field around and out of state, or to the Lewiston/Auburn area for work, most of these people make low-middle class wages and are struggling to support their families. I also see many college students who travel daily from the Rumford area to UMF and to Auburn to Central Maine Community College. They travel now because it is cheaper than renting an apartment in those areas, but if you add this gas tax then traveling is no longer an option, and also the possibility of furthering their education. Forcing electric vehicles in Maine is not going to help anyone or the environment. Stop trying to hurt the people of Maine with higher taxes! We are already one of the most heavily taxed states!

I think the TCI is a great idea. I hope the most ambitious emission reduction targets are used.