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Post Office Box 1147
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Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
▪ (781) 639-9709
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
46 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
|
CLT UPDATE
Friday, January 17, 2020
TCI
opposition is growing
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
|
Opposition is growing around a regional climate compact
backed by Gov. Charlie Baker — with officials in nearby New
England states knocking the deal as others mull it over.
Governors in New Hampshire, Connecticut and most recently
Vermont have already cast a shadow on the Transportation
Climate Initiative, which would implement a gas fee to
reduce carbon emissions. Officials have estimated the
measure would raise gas prices between 5 to 17 cents per
gallon in the first year.
“If
Vermont and Connecticut follow New Hampshire and withdraw
from TCI, and Massachusetts stays in, is it still TCI or
just a Massachusetts state gas tax?” MassFiscal Alliance
Spokesman Paul Craney told the Herald.
Two
organizations are campaigning against the measure in Maine
and the House Speaker of Rhode Island has publicly indicated
he would not support it.
The
Maine Heritage Policy Center opposes the TCI because it’s a
“bad deal for Maine,” according to spokesman Jacob Posik. At
17 cents per gallon, the TCI would cost the average family
$225 per year, according to Posik.
“Mainers should not be penalized for driving their children
to school, going to work or running errands,” Posik said.
Spokeswoman Julie Rabinowitz of Maine People Before Politics
argued that that the status quo regulatory and market
environment will reduce emissions by 19 percent without any
additional incentives, and under the “most aggressive”
scenario within the TCI, emissions would be reduced by an
additional 6 percent.
“The whole goal of this scheme is to make gas more expensive
for consumers so they will drive less or buy an electric
car,” Rabinowitz said. “It is outrageous to burden the
working poor and people of rural Maine with a huge increase
in costs for only a 6 percent change over the status quo.”
Meanwhile, Maine Governor Janet Mills is taking a more
centrist approach as she “continues to monitor” the
Initiative and will be “appropriately cautious” when
considering the issues, according to a spokeswoman.
Rhode Island House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello effectively
ruled out any tax increases proposed by fellow Democrat Gov.
Gina Raimondo last month, including the potential gas tax
hike emanating from a regional climate initiative, saying it
“will be looked at very skeptically,” The Providence Journal
reported. Mattiello declined further comment.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Support dwindles for Baker’s Transportation Climate
Initiative
Taxation without representation has always been a
non-starter in Massachusetts, all the way back to the Boston
Tea Party in 1773.
But
Gov. Charlie Baker (rhymes with Faker) apparently never
learned the lessons of his Tory forebears, and now in his
political dotage he’s come to fancy himself the
reincarnation of King George III — essentially trying to
double the state’s gasoline tax without a vote by either the
Legislature or the people.
The
only way Tall Deval’s multi-billion-dollar heist known as
TCI would work is if every state between the Canadian border
and Virginia signs on.
That was how the scam was drawn up — if the governments in
all 12 or 13 states decided to screw the working people all
at once, the kleptocrats fronted by Tall Deval could pull it
off.
Alas, the reviews are pouring in, and what can now be called
Baker’s Folly turns out to be a regional, bipartisan flop.
The Boston Herald
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Supporters few and far between for Charlie Baker and his gas
tax proposal
By Howie Carr
Could Janet Mills be the next governor to hop off the TCI
bandwagon?
New
Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu left the multistate
Transportation & Climate Initiative in a blaze of glory last
month. The Republican governor’s brash exit — he declared
TCI a “financial boondoggle” – prompted the natural
question: Who could be next?
Of
New England’s other governors, Mills seemed to sound the
most cautious tone last week about TCI, which would impose a
new fuel cost at the wholesale level by establishing a
system of carbon pollution allowances for up to a dozen
states. The new revenue would help subsidize alternative
forms of transportation, such as electric buses and
car-charging stations.
Mills, a Democrat starting her second year as Maine’s
governor, has made curbing climate change a major priority.
That’s similar to the primary goal of TCI: to reduce carbon
emissions from the region’s cars and trucks by up to 25
percent over a decade. But in a brief statement on Friday
afternoon, press secretary Lindsay Crete said “the
challenges of climate and transportation issues for rural
states like Maine are unique, and the state will be
appropriately cautious when considering these issues.”
She
declined to elaborate. One potential translation: Our
residents are heavily reliant on cars, so there might be
better ways of doing this....
Of
course, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is fully on
board: TCI is a cornerstone of his $18 billion
transportation funding plan, and his energy secretary, Katie
Theoharides, is leading the effort. (The Baker
administration expects up to $500 million in new annual
revenue from TCI, starting as soon as 2022.)
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, January 14, 2019
Mills becomes latest governor to express concern about
regional fuel pact
As
a regional transportation emission reduction pact has
started to show cracks, Energy Secretary Kathleen
Theoharides said Monday that the Baker administration is in
"full-court press mode" to keep the coalition of eastern
states together.
Theoharides testified on Tuesday before a legislative
committee considering carbon pricing proposals, including
bills that would assess a fee on vehicle and home heating
fuels and return some of the penalty revenues as rebates to
residents.
While her testimony focused on the array of policies the
administration is pursuing to react to climate change, many
lawmakers had questions for Theoharides about the future of
the Transportation Climate Initiative in light of comments
made by public officials in neighboring states.
The
regional cap-and-trade program is still in development, but
Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire has already said he will
not enter his state into a final program, and the governors
of Vermont, Connecticut and Maine, as well as the speaker of
the House in Rhode Island, have all raised concerns about
potential costs to consumers.
Theoharides acknowledged that TCI is the "centerpiece" of
Baker's plan to reduce emissions from the transportation
sector to meet the state's carbon reduction requirements....
Sen. Michael Barrett, a Lexington Democrat and the co-chair
of the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee,
asked Theoharides what would happen if the coalition that
began with 12 states and the District of Columbia fell
apart.
"I
will give you the honest answer, which is that I'm fully
committed to getting TCI done and I'm not looking at Plan Bs
because I still believe we can get this done," Theoharides
said.
While Barrett acknowledged that a successful TCI would be
ideal, he asked if Massachusetts could join with California
or solicit other states outside the region to create a
market for carbon allowances.
"Not ideal but workable, right?" he asked.
Theoharides said the program is being designed so that other
states, or even Canada, could easily link up at a later
date, but that was not under consideration at this time.
"We
are in full court press mode to make sure Plan A gets done,"
she said....
Many lawmakers and environmental activists, including Sen.
Marc Pacheco, are interested in seeing the Legislature ramp
up its emission reduction requirements, and view carbon
pricing as one way to do it.
Pacheco has proposed using market-based programs like TCI to
get the state to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
"We
can't wait. That's right. We can't wait any longer," Pacheco
said, alluding to the attendees who had packed into the
hearing room carrying pieces of paper with a picture of the
Earth and those words.
"And I'm glad that the governor is not waiting and is taking
the position to implement TCI, because we don't need a vote
of the Legislature here to implement TCI. That was done in
2008. We have carbon pricing, without a vote," Pacheco
said....
Rep. Paul Tucker, a Salem Democrat, argued, however, that
TCI doesn't go as far as some of the other carbon pricing
proposals filed in the Legislature this session....
"One of the points that can't be lost here is that TCI does
not cover heating. It doesn't cover our buildings. It
doesn't cover the industrial. It doesn't cover homes,"
Tucker said.
While greatly outnumbered by supporters, Rep. David DeCoste
of Norwell brought economist and Beacon Hill Institute
Executive Director David Tuerck to testify against what
Tuerck called the "very bad idea" of carbon pricing.
Tuerck did a study for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance
that was released in July and found that the bill (H 2810)
championed by Driscoll would cost the state more than 11,000
jobs and increase taxes on the average household by $755 in
the first year.
"It
does nothing to improve the climate and it does a great deal
to hurt the Massachusetts economy," Tuerck said.
Tuerck said climate change must be addressed nationwide at
the federal level and with other countries.
State House News Service
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Theoharides on TCI: Full-Court Press for Option A
Regional Effort an Alternative to State-Only Carbon Pricing
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo cast fresh doubts on the
prospects of a regional pact designed to curb carbon
emissions while likely raising gas prices, saying Wednesday
he doesn’t see “a whole lot of support” for it.
Instead, DeLeo suggested the Legislature will plow ahead
with its own transportation financing bill, which could
include a gas tax hike, regardless of Governor Charlie
Baker’s decision to join the multistate effort.
Amid a crisis of confidence in the state’s public transit
systems, it remains unclear when the House will pursue the
long-promised legislation, with DeLeo saying Wednesday he’s
“uncertain as to exactly when” a bill would emerge. But he
said lawmakers probably can’t wait for a potential cash
infusion from the Transportation and Climate Initiative,
whose apparent softening of support throughout New England
could complicate an effort that Baker has roundly supported.
“There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of support for the
concept, at least that I see right now,” DeLeo said
Wednesday, citing media reports. The Winthrop Democrat
suggested he’s “especially concerned” about the uneven
backing among Massachusetts’s immediate New England
neighbors....
New
Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, however, has already opted
out, and his counterparts in Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine
have all thrown up caution flags, directly or indirectly, in
recent weeks. Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo has said
she’s “fully committed” to TCI’s goals, but Nicholas
Mattiello, Rhode Island’s House speaker, has signaled he’s
against it.
Officials released a draft agreement in December, and each
state could make a final decision later this year whether to
participate.
“What I was looking for as we went through this process was
to make sure especially that the New England states would be
on board,” DeLeo said.
“Now, I’m not saying they’re all off,” he added. “Right now,
first of all, for us to wait for that to go into effect, we
could be waiting two or three years. I don’t think we can
wait that long.” ...
The
support, or lack thereof, for TCI within the Legislature,
meanwhile, probably means more in the public discourse than
it does on a legal level. Analysts and state officials say
it’s likely Baker can commit Massachusetts to the agreement
without legislative approval. In other states, it’s not so
clear.
Straus said the public support in other states is important
for the momentum of the agreement, not to mention a state’s
ability to deter drivers from simply crossing the border to
avoid higher gas prices created by the pact.
“That basic argument for TCI seems to have become a more
cloudy one,” Straus said Wednesday.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, January 16, 2020
DeLeo doesn’t see ‘a whole lot of support’ for a regional
climate pact
Massachusetts House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo is “concerned”
about the lack of support garnered from New England states
for the Transportation Climate Initiative as neighboring
governors express doubts about the measure.
“There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of support for the
concept, at least that I see now,” DeLeo told reporters
Wednesday. “What I’m especially concerned, what I was
looking for as we went through this process, was to make
sure especially that the New England states would be on
board.”
Governors in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont and Maine
have already cast a shadow on the Transportation Climate
Initiative, which would implement a gas fee to reduce carbon
emissions. Officials have estimated the measure would raise
gas prices between 5 to 17 cents per gallon in the first
year but it remains unclear how high that cost could rise in
subsequent years.
Critics of the initiative argue that Massachusetts could be
put at an economic disadvantage if surrounding states pull
out of the TCI, while Gov. Charlie Baker has countered that
the purpose of a regional initiative is to ensure a level
playing field.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Speaker DeLeo ‘concerned’ about lack of support for TCI
Common sense is not all that common in politics.
So
it was a bit of a surprise when New Hampshire Gov. Chris
Sununu attributed his decision not to enter the
Transportation Climate Initiative to “common sense.” The
multistate compact would raise gas prices between 5 and 17
cents per gallon in the first year, which Sununu called
“absolutely outrageous.”
He
had previously referred to the measure as a “financial
boondoggle” for the residents of his state....
Sununu argued that current regulations will reduce green
house gas emissions by 19% without any additional
incentives, and, under “very liberal estimates,” the TCI
would reduce emissions by an additional 1% to 6%.
Taxing the heck out of citizens at the gas pumps for a 1% to
6% reduction in greenhouse gases — no, that isn’t common
sense at all.
And
yet, it’s still on the front burner here in
Massachusetts....
But
in these parts, the word solution is synonymous with money,
as in taxpayer money. And as long as there are taxpayers,
there are solutions to any problems the state will
encounter.
A Boston Herald editorial
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Time for common sense solutions, not more taxes
Opponents of a Massachusetts-led regional effort to impose a
cap on transportation emissions gathered Friday to claim
momentum in their fight, drawing criticism from
environmental activists who say they were asked to leave the
event.
Representatives from right-leaning groups in all six New
England states convened a press conference in Boston to
renew their criticism of the Transportation and Climate
Initiative, hopeful that political leaders across the region
will embrace their argument that rising fuel prices that
would be triggered by the effort will create an excessive
burden for residents and businesses.
Paul Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal
Alliance, said the effort to press lawmakers and governors
to abandon TCI is a "day-by-day campaign" after multiple
governors publicly aired concerns about the program.
"Things are going in our direction for the taxpayers and
consumers," Craney told reporters. "Their voices are being
heard, and they have to continue to speak up and be heard."
...
"What we once saw as maybe a regional approach seems to be
falling apart," said Chris Carlozzi, state director of the
National Federation of Independent Business for
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. "If we're going forward
alone, and there certainly has been some talk of doing that
or going forward with a smaller number of states,
Massachusetts small businesses who are already struggling to
meet costs are going to find themselves at a severe
disadvantage."
They portrayed the increase in gasoline and diesel prices
resulting from a fuel cap as a tax, and several said ripples
would spread into other facets of the economy as businesses
face higher transportation costs. Some said the increase in
gas prices would be regressive and harm lower-income
residents, pointing to the Vermont AFL-CIO's criticism.
Mike Stenhouse, CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom
and Prosperity, said gubernatorial administrations or
legislatures agreeing to the regional compact would "cede
our taxing authority to an out-of-state group of unelected
ideologues." ...
"Why are they doing this through this interstate compact?
Why don't you just raise the gas tax by 17 cents? The
infrastructure is already in place to collect the tax, you
wouldn't have to hire any more bureaucrats to do it," said
Rob Roper, president of the Ethan Allen Institute in
Vermont. "The reason they're doing it through this
convoluted, expensive means is because it's a CYA program
for politicians who don't want to be seen as raising a tax."
State House News Service
Friday, January 17, 2020
TCI Opponents Share Objections at Boston Summit
Emissions, Gas Tax Impacts Weighed in 12 States
|
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
"Baker has
indicated that he would exercise his executive power to
implement the TCI compact, but he did say he would give
the Legislature more information about the pact."
— The Boston Herald,
Jan. 11
"'And I'm glad
that the governor is not waiting and is taking the
position to implement TCI, because we don't need a vote
of the Legislature here to implement TCI. That was done
in 2008. We have carbon pricing, without a vote,' [Sen.
Marc Pacheco] said...." —
State House News Service, Jan. 14
"Analysts and
state officials say it’s likely Baker can commit
Massachusetts to the agreement without legislative
approval. In other states, it’s not so clear."
—
The Boston Globe, Jan. 16
Article XXIII. No subsidy,
charge, tax, impost, or duties, ought to be
established, fixed, laid, or levied, under any
pretext whatsoever, without the consent of the
people, or their representatives in the Legislature.
The Massachusetts Constitution
Part the First
A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
"No subsidy,
charge, tax, impost, or duties . . ." Gov. Baker,
can you understand that?
". . . ought
to be established, fixed, laid, or levied . . ."
Got that Gov. Baker?
". . .
under any pretext whatsoever . . ." Clear enough,
Gov. Baker? Under
— Any — Pretext —
Whatsoever.
". . . without
the consent of the people, or their representatives in
the Legislature." Gov. Baker
— this means you
cannot decree it on your own.
John Adams and
the founding fathers of Massachusetts left no wiggle-room
open to interpretation when they drafted the state's
constitution —
none. Because they anticipated
authoritarian scoundrels arising in the future and
specifically protected future generations of citizens of the
commonwealth from Baker's pompous ilk.
I recalled the
other day my long ago (1989) lawsuit specifically
defending that article in the state Constitution in
Suffolk Superior Court, challenging then-Gov. Michael
Dukakis's unilateral fee increases (Ford v. Secretary of
Administration and Finance Edward Lashman; Civil Docket
#89-2288), in which we argued in support of exactly that article
in the Massachusetts Constitution. This was before
the group I founded in 1987 and led, Freedom First, merged with
Citizens for Limited Taxation in 1996. Barbara
Anderson joined that lawsuit as one of the ten taxpayers
effected that was required to file it. Here's the
news release we issued prior to filing it with the
court:
Freedom First
News Release
April 20, 1989
Constitutional Challenge of Fee Increases
On
Friday, April 21st at 10:30 AM, FREEDOM FIRST will
sponsor a press conference at the Omni-Parker House
to announce the filing of a 10-taxpayer lawsuit to
challenge the constitutionality of the governor's
unilateral fee increases.
Among
those supporting this effort who will be on-hand to
discuss this legal challenge will be FREEDOM FIRST
chairman Robert "Chip" Ford, WRKO radio
talk-show host Jerry Williams, Citizens for
Limited Taxation executive director Barbara
Anderson, and others representing statewide
grassroot citizens' organizations who have signed-on
to this challenge as taxpayers.
Attorney Steven Weisman of Amherst, who will
present our case, will explain the legal issues to
be addressed and will be available to answer
specific questions concerning our challenge.
"Over
200 years ago, taxation without representation
ignited a revolution," said Robert "Chip" Ford, "and
this is nothing less than another form of such
taxation upon the citizens of Massachusetts. Article
23 of the Massachusetts Constitution certainly seems
to spell it out clearly enough to me and others. The
Legislature gave away something which we entrusted
to it. This action is being taken to reclaim the
integrity of our constitution and to ensure that it
remains intact, as it was passed down to us."
The
legal challenge will focus upon the questions of the
constitutionality of the Legislature's actions in
abdicating its responsibilities and powers under
Article 23, and whether current fees are in excess
of the amounts required to provide existing services
by various state agencies.
Full Freedom First/CLT Fees Challenge; 1989-1992
One
thing I've learned over my decades of citizens
advocacy is that everything political is cyclical,
and like a bad penny just keeps coming back for
another run. The trick is to stick around long
enough for the re-run with enough institutional
memory to battle it again, with more knowledge and
hard-earned experience.
Charlie should know better.
When I filed that lawsuit Charlie Baker had just
become the young co-director of the newly-founded
Pioneer Institute. At its recommendation, in
1991 Charlie was brought into the fledgling Weld
administration as Under-Secretary of Health and
Human Services, his first political appointment.
The following year the Weld administration settled
with us in our lawsuit against the Dukakis
administration's unilateral fee hikes (see details
in the above link).
TCI — Baker's Boondoggle — appears to
be falling apart on its own in the light of
exposure. At this time the only New England
governor supporting it is Charlie Baker, along with
Rhode Island Democrat Gov. Gina Raimondo. She
may be an advocate of TCI, but Rhode Island House
Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, a conservative Democrat,
vowed TCI will not happen in The Ocean State.
Even Democrat Governor Janet Mills of Maine is
keeping her distance, being “appropriately
cautious.”
And now House Speaker Robert DeLeo is
similarly distancing himself from TCI, saying
Wednesday he doesn’t see “a whole lot of support”
for it. The Boston Globe further reported:
Instead, DeLeo suggested the Legislature will
plow ahead with its own transportation financing
bill, which could include a gas tax hike,
regardless of Governor Charlie Baker’s decision
to join the multistate effort. . . .
“There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of support
for the concept, at least that I see right now,”
DeLeo said Wednesday, citing media reports. The
Winthrop Democrat suggested he’s “especially
concerned” about the uneven backing among
Massachusetts’s immediate New England
neighbors....
“What I was looking for as we went through this
process was to make sure especially that the New
England states would be on board,” DeLeo said.
The State
House News Service reported:
“Governors
of those states, with I think the exception of Rhode
Island, all have put up caution flags about the
TCI,” House Transportation Committee Chairman
William Straus said. “It does seem, again in varying
degrees, that the other near states, which the
governor has identified as an important component
for momentum for TCI so you wouldn’t have
cross-border gas purchases, that basic argument for
TCI seems to have become a more cloudy one.”
Two separate
gas tax hikes in Massachusetts remain a distinct
possibility. The Boston Globe reported ("DeLeo
doesn’t see ‘a whole lot of support’ for a regional
climate pact"):
[House
Speaker Robert DeLeo] suggested the Legislature will
plow ahead with its own transportation financing
bill, which could include a gas tax hike, regardless
of Governor Charlie Baker’s decision to join the
multistate effort.... “Right now, first of all, for
us to wait for that to go into effect, we could be
waiting two or three years. I don’t think we can
wait that long.”
Today a
contingent of the Anti-TCI coalition traveled from their
respective New England and Mid-Atlantic states to hold a
press conference in Boston at the Hampshire House.
(More details in the State House News Service report
below, "TCI Opponents Share Objections at Boston
Summit.") Rob Roper, president of the Ethan Allen
Institute in Vermont, best summed up the true purpose of
TCI which none of its advocates have mentioned nor will
admit:
"Why are they
doing this through this interstate compact? Why don't
you just raise the gas tax by 17 cents? The
infrastructure is already in place to collect the tax,
you wouldn't have to hire any more bureaucrats to do it.
The reason they're doing it through this convoluted,
expensive means is because it's a CYA program for
politicians who don't want to be seen as raising a tax."
Mike Stenhouse,
CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and
Prosperity, provided the gravest concern. He
warned that gubernatorial administrations or
legislatures agreeing to the regional compact would
"cede our taxing authority to an out-of-state group of
unelected ideologues."
Paul Craney,
spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said
the effort to press lawmakers and governors to abandon
TCI is a "day-by-day campaign" after multiple governors
publicly aired concerns about the program. "Things
are going in our direction for the taxpayers and
consumers," Craney told reporters. "Their voices
are being heard, and they have to continue to speak up
and be heard."
Keep speaking
up, folks. Loudly! Let your state
representative and senator
—
even Gov. Baker's office for what it's worth
—
hear from you. [FIND
THEM HERE] Let them hear from you, unless you
don't mind paying for increasingly-higher-forever gas
and won't complain when you do. This will be a
cost imposed on a whim by invisible, unaccountable
bureaucrats buried deeply within some distant and
mysterious cartel. Only if that doesn't
bother you can you remain silent and inert.
Remember, once
a new bureaucracy is established and rooted it will
never go away. Not ever.
The only time
it can be stopped is before its seed is planted.
That time in
NOW.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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The Boston
Herald
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Support dwindles for Baker’s Transportation
Climate Initiative
By Mary Markos
Opposition is growing around a regional climate
compact backed by Gov. Charlie Baker — with
officials in nearby New England states knocking
the deal as others mull it over.
Governors in New Hampshire, Connecticut and most
recently Vermont have already cast a shadow on
the Transportation Climate Initiative, which
would implement a gas fee to reduce carbon
emissions. Officials have estimated the measure
would raise gas prices between 5 to 17 cents per
gallon in the first year.
“If Vermont and Connecticut follow New Hampshire
and withdraw from TCI, and Massachusetts stays
in, is it still TCI or just a Massachusetts
state gas tax?” MassFiscal Alliance Spokesman
Paul Craney told the Herald.
Two organizations are campaigning against the
measure in Maine and the House Speaker of Rhode
Island has publicly indicated he would not
support it.
The Maine Heritage Policy Center opposes the TCI
because it’s a “bad deal for Maine,” according
to spokesman Jacob Posik. At 17 cents per
gallon, the TCI would cost the average family
$225 per year, according to Posik.
“Mainers should not be penalized for driving
their children to school, going to work or
running errands,” Posik said.
Spokeswoman Julie Rabinowitz of Maine People
Before Politics argued that that the status quo
regulatory and market environment will reduce
emissions by 19 percent without any additional
incentives, and under the “most aggressive”
scenario within the TCI, emissions would be
reduced by an additional 6 percent.
“The whole goal of this scheme is to make gas
more expensive for consumers so they will drive
less or buy an electric car,” Rabinowitz said.
“It is outrageous to burden the working poor and
people of rural Maine with a huge increase in
costs for only a 6 percent change over the
status quo.”
Meanwhile, Maine Governor Janet Mills is taking
a more centrist approach as she “continues to
monitor” the Initiative and will be
“appropriately cautious” when considering the
issues, according to a spokeswoman.
Rhode Island House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello
effectively ruled out any tax increases proposed
by fellow Democrat Gov. Gina Raimondo last
month, including the potential gas tax hike
emanating from a regional climate initiative,
saying it “will be looked at very skeptically,”
The Providence Journal reported. Mattiello
declined further comment.
Raimondo is “fully committed” to the initiative,
however, and “believes we need an aggressive
approach to lowering carbon emissions in the
transportation sector,” according to a
spokeswoman. “The specific statutory and
regulatory changes needed to meet those goals
will be the source of public discussion and
input over the coming year.”
Maryland Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles said
the state “remains very engaged in the
Transportation and Climate Initiative. We will
continue to seek and review comments from
citizens and stakeholders to determine potential
next steps.”
New Jersey has also not committed to
implementing the program at this point,
according to the Department of Environmental
Protection. Officials from New York,
Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of
Columbia did not respond to multiple requests
for comment.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu called the
measure a “financial boondoggle”and said in
mid-December he would not “force Granite Staters
to pay more for their gas just to subsidize
other states’ crumbling infrastructure.”
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont called the measure a
“gas tax” that will punish drivers earlier this
week and Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said he cannot
support proposals that will increase costs for
commuters.
Baker has indicated that he would exercise his
executive power to implement the TCI compact,
but he did say he would give the Legislature
more information about the pact.
“The Administration is pleased by the robust
participation by Northeast and Mid-Atlantic
states throughout the program’s ongoing
development process and by the broad coalition
of support from members of both the business and
environmental communities,” EEA Spokeswoman
Katie Gronendyke said.
The Boston
Herald
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Supporters few and far between for Charlie Baker
and his gas tax proposal
By Howie Carr
Taxation without representation has always been
a non-starter in Massachusetts, all the way back
to the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
But Gov. Charlie Baker (rhymes with Faker)
apparently never learned the lessons of his Tory
forebears, and now in his political dotage he’s
come to fancy himself the reincarnation of King
George III — essentially trying to double the
state’s gasoline tax without a vote by either
the Legislature or the people.
The only way Tall Deval’s multi-billion-dollar
heist known as TCI would work is if every state
between the Canadian border and Virginia signs
on.
That was how the scam was drawn up — if the
governments in all 12 or 13 states decided to
screw the working people all at once, the
kleptocrats fronted by Tall Deval could pull it
off.
Alas, the reviews are pouring in, and what can
now be called Baker’s Folly turns out to be a
regional, bipartisan flop.
GOP governor of New Hampshire: “A financial
boondoggle.”
Democrat governor of Connecticut: “Probably not
the way to go.”
GOP governor of Vermont: “I simply cannot
support (tax grabs like TCI).”
Democrat speaker of the Rhode Island House:
“(It) will be looked at very skeptically.”
Mass. state GOP chairman: “Let them fund their
initiatives with the untold millions that Beacon
Hill has already robbed from taxpayers.”
Vermont union president: “Most Vermonters have
jobs they actually have to show up for and can’t
‘work from home.’”
And some skeptical states have yet to be heard
from — Pennsylvania, for example, which has
Republican majorities in both branches of its
Legislature. It would be reassuring to think
that everyone lining up against this highway
robbery is really channeling the Sons of Liberty
who threw the tea into Boston Harbor.
But at least in some cases you can detect the
whiff of political expediency here.
Connecticut’s got other new taxes up its
destitute sleeve, for instance, and doesn’t need
to be cutting the “region” in on the score. Tall
Deval’s gasoline hara-kiri would be an amazing
boon to the economy of New Hampshire — much
bigger than the banning of menthol cigarettes in
the Bay State in June.
But most significantly, this is a presidential
election year. The turnout will be way, way up,
and this kind of outrageous tax hike would be
political dynamite. It’s one thing for hacks to
give the middle finger to their constituents,
but none of them want to be photographed doing
it.
Except, of course, Tall Deval.
Now, of course he will say that all the billions
from this Transportation Climate Initiative
(TCI) will be “earmarked,” which is impossible
to do, and that after global warming is solved
and polar bears everywhere are safe, the tax, I
mean fee, will be “sunsetted.”
Sunsetted — you know, like the tolls on the Mass
Pike were sunsetted, to be taken down after the
initial bonds were paid off.
In 1988.
TCI is just another income redistribution
scheme, transferring money from the people who
actually earned it to clowns like the now-fired
“director of sustainability” at Babson College,
in other words nonprofit scam artists who were
passed over for one of those phony-baloney
$300,000-a-year associate deputy senior interim
vice chancellor jobs at UMass.
Maybe if the Patriots were still in contention,
Tom Brady would have diverted enough attention
away from the State House to allow Tall Deval to
pick our pockets without most people realizing
they were being robbed until it was too late.
But now the alarms are ringing, the red-dye
packs have exploded, and Tall Deval is busted.
How will he describe this latest smash-and-grab
next week in his annual State of the State
address? I mean, after he takes a few bows for
his remarkable stewardship of the MBTA, the
State Police, the RMV, UMass, DCF and every
other dysfunctional state agency.
If you want to learn more about Baker’s new
gasoline tax, go to www.massfiscal.org. There
you will be directed to the TCI hacks’ own
website, where you can leave your comments.
Here’s a small sample of the hundreds of
thumbs-down:
Mary from Rhode Island: “This tax is a
ridiculous fraud funded by money-grubbing
grifters.”
Bill from Framingham: “I want to stop Gov.
Baker’s GAS TAX.”
Ron from Vermont: “If you really want to stick
it to the poor and particularly to people who
work for a living, raise the price of gas.”
Feel free to put in your own two cents, before
Tall Deval and the mullah-loving erstwhile
director of sustainability steal it from you.
Maybe you should remind Baker that, as you can
see from this photograph from 2014, he used to
be against taxation without representation
before he was for taxation without
representation.
The Boston
Globe
Tuesday, January 14, 2019
Mills becomes latest governor to express concern
about regional fuel pact
By Jon Chesto
Could Janet Mills be the next governor to hop
off the TCI bandwagon?
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu left the
multistate Transportation & Climate Initiative
in a blaze of glory last month. The Republican
governor’s brash exit — he declared TCI a
“financial boondoggle” – prompted the natural
question: Who could be next?
Of New England’s other governors, Mills seemed
to sound the most cautious tone last week about
TCI, which would impose a new fuel cost at the
wholesale level by establishing a system of
carbon pollution allowances for up to a dozen
states. The new revenue would help subsidize
alternative forms of transportation, such as
electric buses and car-charging stations.
Mills, a Democrat starting her second year as
Maine’s governor, has made curbing climate
change a major priority.
That’s similar to the primary goal of TCI: to
reduce carbon emissions from the region’s cars
and trucks by up to 25 percent over a decade.
But in a brief statement on Friday afternoon,
press secretary Lindsay Crete said “the
challenges of climate and transportation issues
for rural states like Maine are unique, and the
state will be appropriately cautious when
considering these issues.”
She declined to elaborate. One potential
translation: Our residents are heavily reliant
on cars, so there might be better ways of doing
this.
Tony Buxton, an energy lawyer at Preti Flaherty
in Portland, Maine, said “it’s asking a lot of
her to support TCI” during the governor’s first
two years in office, especially given her other
environmental efforts. (Mills worked with Buxton
at his law firm before she became governor.) He
noted that Maine is the least dense state, in
terms of population, east of the Mississippi.
Driving is essential.
But Elizabeth Turnbull Henry, president of the
Environmental League of Massachusetts and a TCI
champion, cautioned against reading too much
into Mills’ words. Mills wants to see Maine be
carbon-neutral by 2045. To pull that off, Henry
said, she’ll have to turn to the transportation
sector.
So what do the other New England governors
think?
Of course, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker
is fully on board: TCI is a cornerstone of his
$18 billion transportation funding plan, and his
energy secretary, Katie Theoharides, is leading
the effort. (The Baker administration expects up
to $500 million in new annual revenue from TCI,
starting as soon as 2022.)
Baker opposes a straight gas tax increase —
something the House of Representatives is
expected to advance on Beacon Hill in the coming
weeks. TCI, however, acts like a gas tax because
those pollution credits will likely drive up
costs at the pump, possibly by anywhere from 5
cents to 17 cents a gallon.
A spokesman for Governor Gina Raimondo in Rhode
Island said she is “fully committed” to the TCI
goals, including an aggressive approach to
lowering carbon emissions in the transportation
sector.
In Vermont, Governor Phil Scott has expressed
concerns about TCI in the past. He didn’t
mention TCI by name in his state-of-the-state
speech last week, but raised a few eyebrows when
he said he prefers “incentives, not penalties”
to transition Vermont to a greener future. TCI
might be the last thing Connecticut Governor Ned
Lamont wants to talk about right now. Lamont is
trying to shore up support for a transportation
bill that would revive tolls in Connecticut, a
bill that could be taken up by lawmakers later
this month. The tolls would only be for larger
trucks, at 12 bridges in the state, but they
still face resistance. (Lamont earlier wanted
broader tolling.)
A spokesman said Lamont is still weighing TCI,
but has ruled out supporting a gas tax increase
as the primary way to fund infrastructure
improvements.
Sununu, meanwhile, seems to be enjoying the
controversy: He said he’s happy other governors
are “rightfully sounding the alarm on this new
gas tax.”
Most of these states need legislative approval
to join TCI, although the precise number remains
unclear. There could be a 50/50 split in New
England. Conservation Law Foundation attorney
Staci Rubin says her group’s legal analysis
shows Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut
likely do not need legislative approval, while
the other three states potentially will.
Publicly, at least, Baker’s people seem
unconcerned about defections, even though they
want a critical mass of state participation.
A spokeswoman said the administration is pleased
by broad support seen among environmental and
business communities, and the “robust
participation” by the various Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic states. The group is accepting
public comments on TCI rules through the end of
February, and expects to figure out who is out
and who is in this spring. The caution expressed
in Maine indicates TCI’s boosters might still
have some persuading to do.
State House News
Service
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Theoharides on TCI: Full-Court Press for Option
A
Regional Effort an Alternative to State-Only
Carbon Pricing
By Matt Murphy
As a regional transportation emission reduction
pact has started to show cracks, Energy
Secretary Kathleen Theoharides said Monday that
the Baker administration is in "full-court press
mode" to keep the coalition of eastern states
together.
Theoharides testified on Tuesday before a
legislative committee considering carbon pricing
proposals, including bills that would assess a
fee on vehicle and home heating fuels and return
some of the penalty revenues as rebates to
residents.
While her testimony focused on the array of
policies the administration is pursuing to react
to climate change, many lawmakers had questions
for Theoharides about the future of the
Transportation Climate Initiative in light of
comments made by public officials in neighboring
states.
The regional cap-and-trade program is still in
development, but Gov. Chris Sununu of New
Hampshire has already said he will not enter his
state into a final program, and the governors of
Vermont, Connecticut and Maine, as well as the
speaker of the House in Rhode Island, have all
raised concerns about potential costs to
consumers.
Theoharides acknowledged that TCI is the
"centerpiece" of Baker's plan to reduce
emissions from the transportation sector to meet
the state's carbon reduction requirements.
"We see states as being exactly in the position
we expected them to be in, looking at all of the
details, talking to their stakeholders and
working toward that spring deadline,"
Theoharides told lawmakers.
The TCI coalition by the spring expects to
finalize the details of the program, including a
cap on car and truck emissions that would reduce
emissions by between 20 percent to 25 percent,
and add between 5 cents and 17 cents to the
price of a gallon of gas.
Sen. Michael Barrett, a Lexington Democrat and
the co-chair of the Telecommunications,
Utilities and Energy Committee, asked
Theoharides what would happen if the coalition
that began with 12 states and the District of
Columbia fell apart.
"I will give you the honest answer, which is
that I'm fully committed to getting TCI done and
I'm not looking at Plan Bs because I still
believe we can get this done," Theoharides said.
While Barrett acknowledged that a successful TCI
would be ideal, he asked if Massachusetts could
join with California or solicit other states
outside the region to create a market for carbon
allowances.
"Not ideal but workable, right?" he asked.
Theoharides said the program is being designed
so that other states, or even Canada, could
easily link up at a later date, but that was not
under consideration at this time.
"We are in full court press mode to make sure
Plan A gets done," she said.
Theoharides announced for the first time at the
hearing that emissions in 2017 were down 22.4
percent from 1990 levels, compared to 21.4
percent in 2016, and enough to keep the state on
track to reach its legal requirement to lower
emissions by 25 percent by 2020.
"We are seeing some interesting trends in the
data this year. One of the more interesting ones
is that transportation emissions actually
decreased slightly even though vehicle miles and
population increased. We really think this is
due to decreased fuel consumption from improving
vehicle efficiency standards," Theoharides said.
Transportation emissions currently account for
about 42 percent of the state's carbon
emissions, up from 32 percent in 1990, she said.
She said there was a "little uptick" in
emissions from the building sector, noting more
days that heat needed to be turned on in 2017
than in 2016.
Since 2005 when greenhouse gas emissions were 2
percent above 1990 levels, the state has
gradually lowered its greenhouse gas output.
The steepest decline came between 2010 and 2012
when in those two years emissions fell 12
percent to 24 percent below 1990 levels, before
coming back up slightly in 2013. The 2012 mark
is the lowest emission level the state has
achieved, according to the Department of
Environmental Protection.
Barrett suggested that the decommissioning of
the Pilgrim nuclear power plant could cause
emissions to tick back up, but Theoharides said
the clean energy lost from Pilgrim would be
counteracted by the closure of the coal-fired
plant at Brayton Point.
"Our projection shows us continuing to make
progress and going beyond 25 percent,"
Theoharides said.
Many lawmakers and environmental activists,
including Sen. Marc Pacheco, are interested in
seeing the Legislature ramp up its emission
reduction requirements, and view carbon pricing
as one way to do it.
Pacheco has proposed using market-based programs
like TCI to get the state to net-zero carbon
emissions by 2050.
"We can't wait. That's right. We can't wait any
longer," Pacheco said, alluding to the attendees
who had packed into the hearing room carrying
pieces of paper with a picture of the Earth and
those words.
"And I'm glad that the governor is not waiting
and is taking the position to implement TCI,
because we don't need a vote of the Legislature
here to implement TCI. That was done in 2008. We
have carbon pricing, without a vote," Pacheco
said.
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008
authorized the executive branch to enter into
market-based agreements to reduce emissions from
varying sectors.
Rep. Paul Tucker, a Salem Democrat, argued,
however, that TCI doesn't go as far as some of
the other carbon pricing proposals filed in the
Legislature this session.
Tucker testified with Rep. William Driscoll and
others on legislation that would put a price of
$20 a ton on carbon dioxide emissions and return
70 percent of the fees collected to households
and employers through rebates. The remaining 30
percent would be used to support clean
transportation, climate resilience and renewable
energy projects.
"One of the points that can't be lost here is
that TCI does not cover heating. It doesn't
cover our buildings. It doesn't cover the
industrial. It doesn't cover homes," Tucker
said.
While greatly outnumbered by supporters, Rep.
David DeCoste of Norwell brought economist and
Beacon Hill Institute Executive Director David
Tuerck to testify against what Tuerck called the
"very bad idea" of carbon pricing.
Tuerck did a study for the Massachusetts Fiscal
Alliance that was released in July and found
that the bill (H 2810) championed by Driscoll
would cost the state more than 11,000 jobs and
increase taxes on the average household by $755
in the first year.
"It does nothing to improve the climate and it
does a great deal to hurt the Massachusetts
economy," Tuerck said.
Tuerck said climate change must be addressed
nationwide at the federal level and with other
countries.
Another panel of economists said Tuerck's
research ignored benefits like improved health
conditions and flew in the face of "mounting
evidence to the contrary" in economics
literature.
"It's ignoring, among other things, what are you
going to do with the revenue. It's just too
simplistic," said Gil Metcalf, professor of
economics at Tufts University and former deputy
assistant secretary for energy at the U.S.
Treasury.
Metcalf said research has shown that carbon
pricing alternatives, such as renewable
portfolio standards and low-carbon fuel
standards, cost more per ton of carbon removed.
"The statewide fee on carbon emissions is where
we should be, but if we can't do that
participating in a transportation cap and trade
system is a reasonable fallback as it would more
than double and nearly triple the share of the
commonwealth emissions subject to a carbon
price," Metcalf said.
Christopher Knittel, an MIT economist, said
Massachusetts is "well-suited" for a carbon tax
because its economy is driven by a lot of
industries that aren't "energy dependent," and
the fee would fall on commerce coming into the
state.
"You're taxing someone else's constituencies,"
Knittel said, drawing laughter from committee
members and the audience.
The Boston
Globe
Thursday, January 16, 2020
DeLeo doesn’t see ‘a whole lot of support’ for a
regional climate pact
By Matt Stout
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo cast fresh doubts
on the prospects of a regional pact designed to
curb carbon emissions while likely raising gas
prices, saying Wednesday he doesn’t see “a whole
lot of support” for it.
Instead, DeLeo suggested the Legislature will
plow ahead with its own transportation financing
bill, which could include a gas tax hike,
regardless of Governor Charlie Baker’s decision
to join the multistate effort.
Amid a crisis of confidence in the state’s
public transit systems, it remains unclear when
the House will pursue the long-promised
legislation, with DeLeo saying Wednesday he’s
“uncertain as to exactly when” a bill would
emerge. But he said lawmakers probably can’t
wait for a potential cash infusion from the
Transportation and Climate Initiative, whose
apparent softening of support throughout New
England could complicate an effort that Baker
has roundly supported.
“There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of support
for the concept, at least that I see right now,”
DeLeo said Wednesday, citing media reports. The
Winthrop Democrat suggested he’s “especially
concerned” about the uneven backing among
Massachusetts’s immediate New England neighbors.
The initiative, known as TCI, would impose a new
fuel cost at the wholesale level by establishing
a system of carbon pollution allowances for up
to a dozen states. The goal, proponents say, is
to slice carbon emissions from transportation by
up to 25 percent over a decade, but in doing so,
it is likely to drive up the costs at the pump
anywhere from 5 cents to 17 cents a gallon. The
Baker administration expects up to $500 million
in new annual revenue once it goes into effect,
which could happen as soon as 2022.
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, however,
has already opted out, and his counterparts in
Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine have all thrown
up caution flags, directly or indirectly, in
recent weeks. Rhode Island Governor Gina
Raimondo has said she’s “fully committed” to
TCI’s goals, but Nicholas Mattiello, Rhode
Island’s House speaker, has signaled he’s
against it.
Officials released a draft agreement in
December, and each state could make a final
decision later this year whether to participate.
“What I was looking for as we went through this
process was to make sure especially that the New
England states would be on board,” DeLeo said.
“Now, I’m not saying they’re all off,” he added.
“Right now, first of all, for us to wait for
that to go into effect, we could be waiting two
or three years. I don’t think we can wait that
long.”
DeLeo had first said he intended to take up a
transportation financing bill last fall before
pushing it into 2020. He told the State House
News in November that he was “shooting for
January” and his transportation chairman,
Representative William M. Straus, has said that
was still a target.
But DeLeo offered no firm timeline Wednesday
other than a possible vote in winter. The bill’s
actual contents have, too, remained a mystery,
with options ranging from a gas tax hike to
increased fees on ride-hail trips through Uber,
Lyft, and other companies.
DeLeo insisted that the lack of a clear
timetable shouldn’t be interpreted as him
“backing off.”
“You can rest assured, first of all, there will
be a debate relative to transportation funding,”
he said. “It seems to me that every day that
goes by, there’s a further example, I think, of
the need for transportation revenue and for some
work to begin relative to our transportation
system.”
The support, or lack thereof, for TCI within the
Legislature, meanwhile, probably means more in
the public discourse than it does on a legal
level. Analysts and state officials say it’s
likely Baker can commit Massachusetts to the
agreement without legislative approval. In other
states, it’s not so clear.
Straus said the public support in other states
is important for the momentum of the agreement,
not to mention a state’s ability to deter
drivers from simply crossing the border to avoid
higher gas prices created by the pact.
“That basic argument for TCI seems to have
become a more cloudy one,” Straus said
Wednesday.
The Boston
Herald
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Speaker DeLeo ‘concerned’ about lack of support
for TCI
By Mary Markos
Massachusetts House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo is
“concerned” about the lack of support garnered
from New England states for the Transportation
Climate Initiative as neighboring governors
express doubts about the measure.
“There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of support
for the concept, at least that I see now,” DeLeo
told reporters Wednesday. “What I’m especially
concerned, what I was looking for as we went
through this process, was to make sure
especially that the New England states would be
on board.”
Governors in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont
and Maine have already cast a shadow on the
Transportation Climate Initiative, which would
implement a gas fee to reduce carbon emissions.
Officials have estimated the measure would raise
gas prices between 5 to 17 cents per gallon in
the first year but it remains unclear how high
that cost could rise in subsequent years.
Critics of the initiative argue that
Massachusetts could be put at an economic
disadvantage if surrounding states pull out of
the TCI, while Gov. Charlie Baker has countered
that the purpose of a regional initiative is to
ensure a level playing field.
“Governors of those states, with I think the
exception of Rhode Island, all have put up
caution flags about the TCI,” House
Transportation Committee Chairman William Straus
said. “It does seem, again in varying degrees,
that the other near states, which the governor
has identified as an important component for
momentum for TCI so you wouldn’t have
cross-border gas purchases, that basic argument
for TCI seems to have become a more cloudy one.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu rejected the
initiative almost immediately after a draft
agreement was released last month, calling it a
financial “boondoggle.” In an exclusive
interview Tuesday with the Herald, Sununu
acknowledged that the TCI would bring in a
copious amount of revenue for the Bay State, but
went so far as to say he would thank
Massachusetts for joining.
“Thank you, because you’re going to drive all
the business to New Hampshire,” Sununu told the
Herald. “Everyone’s going to come over the
border. You might as well shut down every gas
station and convenience shop along the border.
It would be really tough.”
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont earlier this week
called the measure a “gas tax” that will punish
drivers and Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said he
cannot support proposals that will increase
costs for commuters. Maine Gov. Janet Mills will
be “appropriately cautious” as she “continues to
monitor” the Initiative, a spokeswoman said last
week.
In a statement, Baker’s office pushed back on
the characterization of the TCI as a gas tax.
“Governor Baker opposes raising the gas tax and
is pursuing a regional transportation and
climate initiative to invest in public
transportation, reduce emissions and cut
congestion,” the statement read. “The initiative
has support from members of both the business
and environmental communities who believe this
initiative will further mitigate the impacts of
climate change, protect the health of our
residents, and build a more resilient,
sustainable and equitable transportation system
for the next generation.”
DeLeo, who indicated Wednesday that he plans to
file legislation to create revenue for
transportation in the coming months, also said
that the money collected from the TCI wouldn’t
be available for two or three years.
“In terms of what’s been happening in terms of
transportation, I don’t think we can wait that
long,” DeLeo said.
The Boston
Herald
Thursday, January 16, 2020
A Boston Herald editorial
Time for common sense solutions, not more taxes
Common sense is not all that common in politics.
So it was a bit of a surprise when New Hampshire
Gov. Chris Sununu attributed his decision not to
enter the Transportation Climate Initiative to
“common sense.” The multistate compact would
raise gas prices between 5 and 17 cents per
gallon in the first year, which Sununu called
“absolutely outrageous.”
He had previously referred to the measure as a
“financial boondoggle” for the residents of his
state.
The New Hampshire governor met with Boston
Herald editors this week to discuss TCI and
other issues our states share.
As the Herald’s Mary Markos reported, Sununu
argued that current regulations will reduce
green house gas emissions by 19% without any
additional incentives, and, under “very liberal
estimates,” the TCI would reduce emissions by an
additional 1% to 6%.
Taxing the heck out of citizens at the gas pumps
for a 1% to 6% reduction in greenhouse gases —
no, that isn’t common sense at all.
And yet, it’s still on the front burner here in
Massachusetts.
New Hampshire adopted the Regional Greenhouse
Gas Initiative in 2008, as part of a
Northeast/Mid-Atlantic 10-state initiative to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a
cap-and-trade program, and a report by nonprofit
environmental group Acadia Center found that the
RGGI states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New
York, Rhode Island and Vermont — reduced carbon
dioxide emissions in the power sector by nearly
half, exceeding the national rate by 90%.
The supposed “problem” with initiatives such as
the RGGI is that they don’t penalize people for
driving cars, the ultimate aim of
environmentally linked gas taxes such as in the
TCI. If gas is prohibitively expensive, folks
will look to alternative transportation, which
they just so happen to have funded through those
astronomical gas prices. Nor do they turn
taxpayers into ATMs to fund transportation
projects, whether they take public
transportation or not.
The impact on people who have to live day to
day, commute, pay their bills and feed their
families, well, that’s collateral damage. What
do you do when you need to drive your kids to
school, or go to work, but you can’t afford to
fill up your car?
The TCI takes a rather myopic view of how
greenhouse emissions can be lowered, which is a
lost opportunity to examine other ideas, ones
that may work for different states in the
“pact.”
Sununu spoke of the need for flexibility in
problem solving. He was an environmental
engineer, back in the day, MIT Class of ’98.
Engineers are big on practical solutions —
perhaps all politicians should take a crash
course right after they’re sworn in.
But in these parts, the word solution is
synonymous with money, as in taxpayer money. And
as long as there are taxpayers, there are
solutions to any problems the state will
encounter.
The thing is, there are alternatives for many
Bay State residents if Massachusetts joins the
TCI. Head over the border to New Hampshire and
gas up there. Do a little sports betting while
they’re at it. And maybe even check out some
real estate.
“At the end of the day, you have to do what’s
right by your citizens,” Sununu said.
Are you listening, Gov. Baker?
State House
News Service
Friday, January 17, 2020
TCI Opponents Share Objections at Boston Summit
Emissions, Gas Tax Impacts Weighed in 12 States
By Chris Lisinski
Opponents of a Massachusetts-led regional effort
to impose a cap on transportation emissions
gathered Friday to claim momentum in their
fight, drawing criticism from environmental
activists who say they were asked to leave the
event.
Representatives from right-leaning groups in all
six New England states convened a press
conference in Boston to renew their criticism of
the Transportation and Climate Initiative,
hopeful that political leaders across the region
will embrace their argument that rising fuel
prices that would be triggered by the effort
will create an excessive burden for residents
and businesses.
Paul Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts
Fiscal Alliance, said the effort to press
lawmakers and governors to abandon TCI is a
"day-by-day campaign" after multiple governors
publicly aired concerns about the program.
"Things are going in our direction for the
taxpayers and consumers," Craney told reporters.
"Their voices are being heard, and they have to
continue to speak up and be heard."
The event deepened tensions between the think
tanks who hosted it and environmental groups who
see TCI as an important component of state
efforts to address climate change.
Craney denied one person in attendance the
chance to ask a question because he was not a
member of the press. Members of environmental
advocacy groups also said they were asked to
leave after being told the event was private.
One of those individuals, Environmental League
of Massachusetts President Elizabeth Henry, told
the News Service that she did not intend to ask
any questions but hoped to hear a clear
alternative for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions from TCI opponents. She said that hope
went unfulfilled.
"We have a statutory obligation to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050,"
she said, referring to the state's Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2008 that sets an
emissions reduction target. "Climate change
mitigation is statutorily mandated, and if not
TCI, then what? I'm open to hearing it, but I
feel like we have a really great solution in
TCI."
If implemented, the program would place a cap on
emissions from road fuel sources in
participating states and sell carbon allowances,
with resulting revenue intended to fund clean
transportation investments. Officials have
estimated TCI could increase gas prices between
five and 17 cents per gallon and reduce carbon
emissions from passenger vehicles by 20 to 25
percent.
After parties released the updated estimates,
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu withdrew his
state from talks, slamming the pact as a
"financial boondoggle."
Governors in Vermont, Connecticut and Maine and
the Rhode Island House speaker have also raised
concerns about the costs without announcing
withdrawal.
During their press conference, the anti-TCI
attendees, some of whom had already been on
record campaigning against the compact,
reiterated many of the points they have made in
the month since release of initial estimates
about the costs and benefits of a regional
effort.
"What we once saw as maybe a regional approach
seems to be falling apart," said Chris Carlozzi,
state director of the National Federation of
Independent Business for Massachusetts and Rhode
Island. "If we're going forward alone, and there
certainly has been some talk of doing that or
going forward with a smaller number of states,
Massachusetts small businesses who are already
struggling to meet costs are going to find
themselves at a severe disadvantage."
They portrayed the increase in gasoline and
diesel prices resulting from a fuel cap as a
tax, and several said ripples would spread into
other facets of the economy as businesses face
higher transportation costs. Some said the
increase in gas prices would be regressive and
harm lower-income residents, pointing to the
Vermont AFL-CIO's criticism.
Mike Stenhouse, CEO of the Rhode Island Center
for Freedom and Prosperity, said gubernatorial
administrations or legislatures agreeing to the
regional compact would "cede our taxing
authority to an out-of-state group of unelected
ideologues."
Others argued that the effects would
disproportionately harm their communities
because residents in rural states such as Maine
and Vermont rely more on driving — and driving
greater distances — than do, for example,
commuters in eastern Massachusetts.
"Why are they doing this through this interstate
compact? Why don't you just raise the gas tax by
17 cents? The infrastructure is already in place
to collect the tax, you wouldn't have to hire
any more bureaucrats to do it," said Rob Roper,
president of the Ethan Allen Institute in
Vermont. "The reason they're doing it through
this convoluted, expensive means is because it's
a CYA program for politicians who don't want to
be seen as raising a tax."
House lawmakers in Massachusetts are separately
preparing a transportation revenue package
likely to include an increase in the state's
24-cents-per-gallon gas tax. Baker opposes a gas
tax increase and has promoted the regional
market-based approach as the best way to reduce
transportation emissions.
The Baker administration continues to push other
states to remain committed. Energy and
Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen
Theoharides said Monday the administration was
in "full-court press mode" to keep the coalition
together.
Neither Maine nor New Hampshire had signed the
same December 2018 agreement as 10 other
jurisdictions involved in the program, opting
instead to remain "observers" as the framework
was developed.
New York also had observer status originally,
although Theoharides said in December that the
distinction between observer state and full
participant had blurred as conversations
unfolded.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pursuing ambitious
climate goals including a net-zero emissions
statewide economy by 2050, but his position on
TCI is not clear yet.
The public comment period on the draft TCI
memorandum of understanding (MOU) ends on Feb.
28. The forces behind the TCI expect a final MOU
in the spring, when states and the District of
Columbia will decide whether to sign it and
participate in the regional program, which could
be operational by 2022.
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