TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

I am strongly in favor of the Transportation and Climate Initiative. The transportation in the Boston, MA area is frightful. We have too many cars on the road, a failing subway system, buses which are often late, and bad roads with many potholes. I went to Japan last year and their transportation system is marvelous--clean roads without potholes and spotless trains which run on time--to the minute! We should have such a system that is also low carbon emitting. We are talking about a cap and trade system and it needs to happen.
Thank you.

This is an excellent and comprehensive bottom-up regional initiative, but it cannot supplant the necessary comprehensive and overarching national clean transportation policy and regulations. States must continue to press Congress and the Administration to recognize and address the acute and interlinked climate change, energy and transportation crisis. More emphasis is needed on a smooth transition to clean energy sources for transportation vehicles and to rebuilding decayed infrastructure, or developing and deploying new infrastructure, such as chargers for electric buses and cars.

It is long past the time when we, following the lead of Europe, invest heavily in mass transit as one way to curb global warming emissions from cars, trucks and planes. It is long past the time when we need to be stuck in gridlock, taking hours to reach our destination, all while watching the earth cook.
I request that New Jersey formally join the plan to reduce emissions and I demand that the policy has a strong component of equity by prioritizing clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution and/or for those who don't have access.
Thank you for the bipartisan nature of this project, moving us forward while the federal government takes us backward. A breath of fresh air is much appreciated.

I am a retired engineer who early in my career worked for a state Air Quality Program. I have a BS degree in Meteorology, am quite familiar with regional air quality modeling, and understand all too well the issue of carbon emissions and the impact on climate.

With regard to the approach outlined by the TCI to reduce carbon emissions from the mobile source sector, it is fundamentally flawed.

First, the economic side: A "carbon tax" or "gas tax" is extremely regressive and hurts low-income individual, small business, and rural communities disproportionately. The relatively MINOR emission reductions gained by this approach will do nothing to curve "climate change" and only place an unnecessary burden on low income, rural Mainers. We do not have the ability in this state not to drive. Taxes without representation is a socialist concept, not one of a free society.

Second, the scientific side. To argue that ANY reductions in emissions from the transportation sector will "reverse" climate change is silly and unscientific. To think that if the world were to stop emitting carbon tomorrow (every living organism on the planet would need to stop breathing) and then believing the climate would return to 1800's levels, is farcical. Think about it. Can humans really control the climate? Ridiculous. The biggest fraud on the American public is when the courts ruled that CO2 was an air pollutant! How can that be, when CO2 is merely part of an organism's life cycle. CO2 is not and never should be considered a pollutant. This is a manufactured crisis. If the climate changes, for whatever reason, we adapt. Has happened over the millennium. Humans adapt to their environment, they cannot control it.

SAY NO to this ill-conceived plan. NO TAXES without representation, and CO2 is NOT a pollutant.

I strongly urge Governor Hogan to formally join with governors up and down the Atlantic seaboard to develop a plan that creates enforceable limits on transportation pollution and encourages both public and private investment in clean mobility solutions for the region. If we Marylanders are to do our part in cutting carbon and other noxious emissions in order to alleviate their negative impact on climate change and pollution levels, we and our public servants must move swiftly and fearlessly to innovate.

The Trump administration is working tirelessly to THWART all efforts at the federal, regional, state and local levels to cut carbon emissions, to maintain clean air and water, and to mitigate climate change. Therefore, it is imperative that governors as well as other officeholders push back by taking action NOW to implement plans and policies that reduce pollution and carbon emissions, including those emanating from our modes of transportation.

Although each of us must do our part as individuals to tread more lightly on this earth, we, our children, and our grandchildren cannot do it alone. We are depending on our government officials to make the systemic changes necessary, among which is a carbon-free—or at least a low-carbon—emissions transportation system. In creating that system the plans that are implemented must be sure to give priority to those in our communities who presently suffer most from the burden of pollution and lack of access to clean mobility.

I salute the bipartisan group of governors in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region who are banding together to do their part to fight the existential threat to our Earth’s climate and our survival. Therefore, I hope that Governor Hogan will play a strong role in the success of the Transportation and Climate Initiative’s Regional Clean Transportation Plan.

There are so many possible ways to begin addressing the impact of transportation on climate change, but the important thing is that we begin somewhere. I favor: more charging stations for electric cars and trucks; increased gasoline taxes; and increased support for public transportation, especially high speed rail as an alternative to airplane travel. These are just the low hanging fruit. I hope that many more ideas will emerge.

Create a marketing plan that speaks to the dire need for the human species to change the way it travels. Transportation with a significantly reduced footprint can reduce monetary investment in maintaining infrastructure. Less taxes. Less stress on all involved systems. The only species on the planet that thinks it needs to move in such an unsustainable and destructive manner is human. It is past time to consider what human beings are bringing to the global table. Lead an "evolution" in changing the way we move.