The Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) is a proposed regional agreement between 12 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states plus the District of Columbia designed to reduce carbon emissions from motor vehicles. TCI would force fuel suppliers to buy permits to sell fuel in proportion to the greenhouse gas the fuels emit when used by consumers. The permits would become fewer in number and more expensive over time. The cost of the TCI permits will be passed down to consumers in the form of higher prices at the pump. The goal of TCI is to make gasoline and diesel fuel so expensive that consumers will be discouraged from buying it.

Here is what TCI means for the driving public:

• • If adopted, TCI will reduce greenhouse gasses by a meager 5% while increasing gasoline prices between 17 and 24 cents per gallon for the 72 million people living in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic in the first year of implementation alone.
• • TCI is a regressive fuel tax that hits working families hardest by taxing them for driving their children to school, going to work, visiting family, buying groceries, or going anywhere that requires an automobile.
• • The TCI gas tax will have a ripple affect across the economy, leading to higher prices for consumer goods and services due to increased manufacturing and transportation costs. These costs will create economic stagnation in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast by steering job growth to states not burdened by TCI mandates.
• • TCI will also increase state and local taxes as transportation costs soar for basic municipal services such as fire and police protection, student transport, road repair, snow removal and trash collection.
• • Consumers will lose their freedom of movement as “no vehicle zones” spread across urban areas, congestion toll pricing is imposed on major arteries, reduction or elimination of on-street and public parking and electric vehicle mandates that limit travel to routes with electric charging stations.

The truth is there are better ways than TCI to reduce carbon emissions by:

• • Providing financial incentives to assist companies to adopt cleaner, greener technologies.
• • Creating an all-of-the-above approach that includes traditional fossil fuels as wells as biodiesel and renewable diesel.
• • Investment in transportation infrastructure that allow for more efficient flow of goods and services.
• • Preferential contracting by state and local governments for bidders that have taken steps to reduce carbon emissions.