By Thomas Catenacci
Several Democratic states withdrew from an ambitious plan to curb transportation emissions less than a year after signing onto the agreement.
Massachusetts and Connecticut abandoned the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) last week, citing high gas prices and irreconcilable differences, E&E News reported. Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., also joined the agreement which promised to cut transportation emissions 25% and raise $3 billion for clean energy projects.
“I couldn’t get that through when gas prices were at a historic low,” Democratic Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said during a press conference, The CT Mirror reported. “So I think legislators are pretty clear, it’s going to be a tough rock to push when the gas prices are so high, so no.”
Connecticut Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney added that the plan would’ve “put a squeeze” on consumers struggling with already high prices.
The three states and D.C. signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2020 after a multi-year negotiation process that involved several additional states. New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia were among the states that participated in negotiations and signaled they would join TCI in the future.
TCI proposed to require oil and gas industry companies to purchase “allowances” for the emissions caused by the fuel they sell, according to the December 2020 announcement. Over the next decade, fossil fuel companies would have progressively smaller allowances.
The plan was projected to generate $300 million per year for green investment in new transportation technology.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, a high-profile environmental group, said the plan was “a key step forward” in the fight against climate change after it was announced last year. Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune promised that local chapters of his organization would fight for strong implementation of TCI.
But gasoline prices have rocketed to their highest level since 2014, and Americans are paying about 60% more at the pump than they were a year ago, the latest AAA data showed. In addition, TCI would’ve specifically harmed Massachusetts’ residents, according to state lawmakers.
“TCI is a regressive gas tax scheme that would have hurt middle class and the working poor the most. It’s such wonderful news to see that Massachusetts families will not be forced to endure the economic hardship TCI would have imposed upon them,” Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance spokesperson Paul Diego Craney told The Associated Press.
Democratic Massachusetts state Sen. Michael Barrett, a climate hawk, argued that the plan would’ve made Massachusetts accountable to other states, according to E&E News.
“It wasn’t my favorite idea because I didn’t like making Massachusetts decisions hostage to other states,” Barrett stated. “My worst fears have been realized. It has been effectively canceled by governors of other states.”
Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who previously called TCI a “trailblazing program,” confirmed the plan had fallen apart.
“The Baker-Polito Administration always maintained the Commonwealth would only move forward with TCI if multiple states committed, and, as that does not exist, the transportation climate initiative is no longer the best solution for the Commonwealth’s transportation and environmental needs,” Baker’s spokesperson Terry MacCormack said in a statement, the AP reported.
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People are now too broke from their Covid Scam to afford this scam. I mean how many scams do they think we can deal with at the same time?
People are removing their consent en masse by quitting jobs in record numbers. All they needed to do to bang the final nail in the coffin was keep raising gas prices even more…so that those even trying to get to work can’t do it anymore.
More and more people are waking up to the fact that working now in America is not moving us very far ahead anymore.. so why do it?
Wait until this nation really stops working..because it’s coming.
Americans are about sick of pulling the wagon that is loaded down with the weight of the entire planet.
“That dog ain’t gonna hunt”.. as us old New Englanders say when we see a giant dose of Reality.
I think the cat was let out the bag last year when that Ismay guy addressed the “Vt. Climate Council” saying “..60% of emissions come from YOU, the person across the street, the senior on fixed income,..to turn the screws on, to break their will so they stop emitting..Right! I can’t even say that publicly!” yet he DID (called a “Kinsey Gaffe”). Unless we are willing to install free or low-cost heat-pumps & retrofit buildings, as in REAL “infrastructure” we’ll never get “emissions” down & even if so we’ll NEVER get China/India/Russia to commit economic suicide along with US. And all the “free charging stations” & “electric buses” (that don’t work, like in Philly, Indy, Duluth, ABQ, etc.) won’t change the FACT that “lowering emissions” means lowering living standards or the FACT that the USA HAS cut our emissions almost by 1/2 just by using natural gas but why bother IF the other “developing” countries REFUSE to go along? As Trump said “can’t WE be developing TOO?”. This whole thing is driven mostly by cellar-dwelling “kids” who think they can just take a bus or call Uber/Lyft when Mommy or Daddy can’t drive THEM where they “need” to go, have never even owned a car or house & are unwilling to give up the conveniences of modern civilization. This whole TCI thing was the product of Moonbats who saw that doubling gas/oil prices w/a TAX was OK at $3 a gallon but would cause a revolt at $4 a gallon or even HIGHER..Stick a fork in TCI, it’s DONE.