Two-Thirds of Registered Voters Support Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Distributors Paying for Pollution; Survey Covers Seven States in Region: CT, MD, MA, NJ, NY, PA and VA.

Groups Calling for Regional Cap-And-Invest Program to Invest in Modern, Clean Infrastructure and Improving Public Transit React to Proposal for Implementation in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States and Washington, D.C.

The Day, New London, Connecticut

By Amy McLean Salls

As we leave behind the summer fun, send the kids back to school and return to our daily commutes, transportation challenges are front and center. In Connecticut, the core problems of aging infrastructure and congested roads are compounded by air pollution from growing vehicle emissions.

MassLive.com

By Lori Ehrlich and Eric Lesser

Delaware News Journal

Let’s face it: The ways we move people and goods in Delaware are outdated, damaging to public health, congested, under-funded and destructive to our climate.

Transportation now accounts for approximately 40% of carbon pollution in the region — and let’s be clear that air pollution knows no state boundaries. This is why it is critical that Governor Carney has joined with other states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI).

RGGI, which addresses the electricity generation sector, has resulted in more than $125 million for Delaware and more than $3 billion for the region in new funding for renewables and energy efficiency.

The new TCI program, modeled after the success of RGGI, targets transportation. It’s designed to limit pollution from motor fuels while creating new funds for clean transportation investments.

Eastern States Introduce a Plan to Cap Tailpipe Pollution, New York Times, December 17, 2019. “The region’s cars, trucks and other forms of transport are now responsible for more than 40 percent of its greenhouse gas pollution, according to the Energy Information Administration.The plan’s backers also stress the importance of regional action at a time when the Trump administration is rolling back a range of climate policies, including weakening standards that would have forced automakers to meet far more stringent fuel efficiency rules. 'When we’re going backward at the federal level, for states to step up and take action on climate, take steps to modernize our transportation system, it’s just an unprecedented opportunity,' said Jordan Stutt, carbon programs director at the Acadia Center, a research and public interest group in New England that is pushing for cleaner energy. 'If designed well, this can be the most significant sub-national climate policy ever.'” 

Polling publicly released today from The Nature Conservancy done by the bipartisan pollster team of New Bridge Strategy and Fairbank, Maslin, Maulllin, Metz & Associates shows that three quarters of small town and rural voters in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states support the creation of a state clean transportation fund. This is significant as transportation improvements and funding are being considered by the jurisdictions participating in the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). TCI is an effort by policymakers from 12 eastern states and the District of Columbia to design a region-wide policy that would both reduce carbon emissions from transportation and provide improved efficiency of and access to transportation systems.