TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

We write from the Collaborative Center for Justice, which is a faith-based advocacy organization based in Hartford, CT. We are sponsored by six congregations of Women Religious around the state. Environmental justice has been one of our priority areas for our education and advocacy work over the years.

We support the development of a strong multi-state Transportation and Climate Initiative and we urge Governor Lamont to fully support participating in this critical initiative. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and emissions will continue to grow if timely action is not taken to transform our transportation system. This initiative is a critically important opportunity to make changes that will lead to an increase in clean transportation and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

We urge leaders to include provisions to prioritize investments in frontline communities that have already disproportionately borne the burdens of environmental injustices. Low-income communities and communities of color already face greater exposure to pollution from vehicle emissions, fossil fuel plants and incinerators in and near their communities. These communities need to be prioritized in the transition to clean energy. We also call upon the leaders of this initiative to meaningfully include voices from directly impacted communities in each step of the development and implementation processes.

We urge you to ensure the inclusion of the following components when developing the final program: commitment to utilizing investments to improve and expand public transportation in the state; increasing and improving bike lanes and sidewalks; and investing in expanded rail service across the state and region. This is an opportunity to make it safer, more affordable, and more possible for people to take public transportation to school and work from where they live. Increasing the frequency of buses and trains and expanding their routes are two important components to make these changes possible. It is also important to increase the availability of bike lanes so that people can safely commute from a public transit stop to another location by bike. Investment in fixing potholes, particularly on busy city streets, is also an important component of improving biker safety.

Residents who already commute to school and work by public transportation face challenges with our current system too. Many bus routes do not have frequent enough schedules to meet the needs of the residents who depend on them. In many cases, taking a bus to school or work is very time consuming because routes and connection points are limited. Bus routes need to be expanded in cities and to neighboring suburbs in order to better address this problem.

We also recommend that investments be used to transition school and public buses to electric buses. Increasing the number and expanding the locations of charging stations around the state would support the transition to electric buses and cars. Transitioning to electric buses will have important public health benefits for the children and adults who ride the buses, as well as for the wider community.

As people of faith, we concerned about the health and wellbeing of all people and our planet. We are particularly concerned about the impacts of environmental injustices on low-income communities and communities of color. We believe that there is an urgency to our actions to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. As a state and region, we have a collective responsibility to make changes to our transportation sector that will address and end these injustices, and move our society toward cleaner and more equitable transportation options in the most immediate way possible. We look forward to Governor Lamont’s leadership and commitment to this critically important initiative.


Respectfully submitted,

Dwayne David Paul – Director
Rachel Lea Scott, MSW – Associate Director

Please support TIC. It's not all we need but it is a good first step in mitigating climate crisis.

While noble in objective, the TCI is fundamentally flawed and most disturbing in that it pre-supposes an outcome- that electrification is the only and best solution for reducing GHG emissions from transportation and all public funds should go to that.

Through its funding approach - cap and invest - essentially, robs Peter to pay Paul. It seems to deem ineligible near term and proven solutions like low carbon transportation fuels - such as renewable biodiesel fuel- that deployed at scale in the region could reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent -- in a timeframe that would likely be DECADES faster than electrification at scale, since all the biofuels infrastructure is essentially in place today as are the vehicles that when using it would deliver the benefits. Switching electric power generation to full scale renewables is not a given, which fundamentally weakens the premise of TCI. off shore wind and solar are coming along but not without major hiccups and setbacks now and who knows what in the future. Until then the region will be trading tailpipe emissons for smokestack ones since natural gas generates the majority of electricity in the region, and in some states far more than others.

IF - and it is a big IF -- any regional confab on climate should exist at all, no duly elected official should ever support anything but a cap and trade framework- where many solutions and technologies compete. That is the best way to achieve progress in such a diverse region on such a challenge in such a timeframe.

Please do this. A sustainable future is the most important thing to me, nothing else matters for my 1 yr old son.

Maryland should make a make a firm commitment to adopt a regional transportation policy that achieves a minimum 40 percent reduction in transportation sector climate pollution by 2030, to keep us on track to meet the climate goals updated by the General Assembly in 2016.
Investment and policy decisions should be made based on pollution reduction and equity goals, as well as robust engagement opportunities from the public‒particularly those most overburdened by transportation pollution and undeserved by our current transportation system.

I travel 60 miles a day just to go to work and I can’t afford any more taxes on gasoline! An electric vehicle is not economical for me !

I commute a long distance and carpool with my wife who needs a car for her job. While we would love more transit options, and those should definitely be expanded into more suburban and rural areas, having government programs that provide genuine, vetted options to buy carbon offsets would be helpful as well. Some people are in circumstances like ours where we need a car throughout the day, eliminating the option of public transit, and being unable to afford to buy an extremely costly electric car to utilize new charging infrastructure. With carbon offsets, we can mitigate the effects of the circumstances we currently face, but it is difficult to personally vet other supplies of offsets to confirm that they are genuine and effective.

Yesterday I saw a two-year old boy with his third asthma attack in three months. After he failed to improve with treatment in my office I sent him to the Emergency Department, where he was started on his third course of oral steroids in twelve weeks. He was placed on strong preventative medication to continue indefinitely. In a single clinic day earlier this week I treated three children with Attention Deficit Disorder and one child with a learning disability.
We know from decades of research that air pollution from the combustion of oil and gas for transportation directly harms the health of our children. Air pollution from fossil fuel combustion harms children's lungs, causing asthma attacks and bronchitis, as well as potentially life-long reduced lung capacity. Air pollution also affects our brains, contributing to cognitive and behavioral disorders in children and Alzheimer's disease in adults. Reducing these pollutants is vital to protecting the health and future of our children and all members of our communities.
That is why I strongly support this policy to reduce air pollution from the transportation sector. This policy would have tremendous health benefits through reduced air pollution. By 2032, the public health benefits of the proposed program could reach as much as $10 billion, and reduce as many as 1,000 fewer premature deaths, and over 1,300 fewer asthma symptoms annually.
As a pediatrician, I strongly support the proposed policy.

I am writing to express my support for the Transportation and Climate Initiative. It has the potential to generate the funds Maryland needs to create an expanded network of public transportation and other public utilities that can lead us to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. I'm sure you know that the transportation sector is the largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, so that is where it is urgently necessary to target government's effort. The majority of Maryland's citizens support it, so it should be easy to vote in favor of it.

Thank you for your attention to this vital issue.