TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Vermont should absolutely join TCI to help address the global climate emergency. The small additional cost of fossil fuel resulting from joining TCI will likely be a fraction of what Vermonters typically see when fuel prices fluctuate due to changes in the cost of oil due to world events. Additionally, by investing the funds raised through TCI into initiatives designed to promote fuel savings, Vermonters will save lots of money and local economies will be strengthened by reducing the amount of money that leaves the state to purchase fossil fuels.

I SUPPORT VERMONT'S JOINING THE TRANSPORTATION AND CLIMATE INITIATIVE. WE MUST NOT MISS THIS COLLECTIVE OPPORTUNITY TO RAISE REVENUES FOR CLIMATE ACTION IN OUR STATE. REFUSING TO JOIN AND EXPERIENCING THE COSTS AND NO BENEFITS WOULD BE A TRAVESTY

If Vermont actually joins the TCI, we'll get more revenue for needed and worthwhile investments than if Vermonters simply contribute to the program. Let's link arms with our neighbors, Governor Scott!

I am in support of the TCI and urge my elected officials, particularly Governor Scott, to vote in favor of Vermont's participation.

The governor’s appointees from the Public Service Department, the Agency of Transportation and the Agency of Natural Resources have been holding public meetings across the state to introduce the TCI to Vermonters. They are basically saying:

- Vermonters will pay TCI’s compliance costs whether or not Gov. Scott joins the program.
- The State will receive back more for investments than Vermonters contribute, if Vermont does join the TCI.

Seems like an obvious choice: Vermont should join TCI and get back more than we put in, rather than opt out, pay TCIs costs anyway and get nothing in return.

Please, Governor Scott. Join the TCI. Good for the environment and good for the economy!

Maine needs to invest in affordable, clean energy solutions in order to reduce pollution, reduce greenhouse gases, and to improve the quality of life for us and for future generations. Please support TCI. Thanks

Here are twelve questions and answers that will explain what TCI is and expects to do.
Q: What is TCI? TCI is a multistate regional agreement to drive up the price of motor fuel (gasoline and on-road diesel). It proposes to start at five, nine or seventeen cents per gallon, and escalate upward from that, with no declared maximum.
Q: Why do the TCI backers want to drive up the price of motor fuel? Because they are convinced that “climate change poses a clear, present, and increasingly dangerous threat to the communities and economic security of each [participating state].” The MOU says that the participating states will “need to implement bold initiatives to mitigate the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector,” which produce 40% of human-caused emissions.
Q: How will TCI drive down those emissions? By driving up the price of gasoline and diesel fuel so you will drive less, drive smaller cars, use electric vehicles, walk, ride bicycles, use public transportation, move closer to school and work, and so on.
Q: How does TCI drive up motor fuel prices? It creates what it calls a “cap and invest” system. TCI sets a cap, or limit, on carbon dioxide emissions from burning motor fuel. Every distributor of motor fuel – of which there are eighty in Vermont – will be required to purchase “allowances” to match the motor fuel sold in each reporting period.
Q: So motorists, including passenger cars, pickups, SUVs, vans, school buses, delivery trucks, contractor vehicles, milk tankers, ambulances, and motorcycles will end up paying for the allowances? Yes, of course they will.
Q: What does the state get for imposing these costs on motorists? TCI will distribute among the participating states some fraction of the revenue from its sale of “allowances”, according to an as yet undetermined formula. The states are supposed to use these revenues to further drive down gasoline and on-road diesel use, and “help their residents transition to affordable, low-carbon transportation options”. Paying people to buy electric cars, and building charging stations for them, is a recommended use of the funds. However, the states can use what they receive for anything their legislature desires.
Q: How many “allowances” will TCI issue? As many it sees fit. TCI will invent them out of thin air, and motor fuel distributors will be required to go into TCI’s auction market to buy enough of them with real money to match their motor fuel deliveries over a preceding reporting period. The cost of these “allowances” will be included in the price you pay at the pump.
Q: Won’t this plan hit hardest on working people and the poor, especially in Vermont’s rural areas? Of course. It’s regressive.
Q: How much will the preferred TCI scenario reduce carbon dioxide emissions from motor fuel? Drew Cline of New Hampshire’s Josiah Bartlett Center analyzed the TCI economic model. He found that the “reference case” used by the Georgetown Climate Center to project what would happen from 2022 to 2032 if states did not implement the TCI would likely be a 19% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. If TCI is implemented, emissions are projected to fall by between 20% and 25% over that decade. So TCI will produce an additional emissions reduction of between 1 and 6 percentage points on top of a presumed reduction of 19 percent. In short, TCI would extract $56 billion from motor fuel users to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a little more than 5 percent over ten years.
Q: Will that reduction of emissions actually reduce “climate change”? Certainly not measurably. Probably not at all.
Q: Wait a minute. Isn’t this TCI “cap and invest” scheme just another carbon tax in a fancy package , designed to make it look like it’s not a carbon tax? Yes, of course.
Q: Gov. Phil Scott has steadfastly promised to veto a carbon tax. Won’t he reject the MOU, as New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu has already done, and veto any legislation to force Vermont fuel dealers to buy those funny money TCI allowances that will drive up the price of gasoline and diesel fuel for all Vermonters? As of now he won’t say, so if you don’t want to see the TCI drive up your fuel prices year after year, it wouldn’t hurt to encourage him to strengthen his resolve.

We need to be changing our fossil fuel based transportation systems as soon as possible rather than later. The earth's weather systems are already showing dramatic and harmful consequences to our economic health through destruction of valuable assets and food security. Public transportation alternatives would substantially reduce the need for expensive electric automobiles and considerably reduce the use of carbon based gasoline to reach public transportation hubs. The sooner we transition to carbon less transportation alternatives and invest in public transportation the more attractive we will become to younger generations looking to settle in sustainable areas of our country.