Path ahead on climate must be clear

In one response to the growing concern over greenhouse gas emissions, the Georgetown Climate Center garnered support from a group of private sector foundations to initiate the Transportation and Climate Initiation, or TCI. Its task is to build comprehensive and seamless regional networks of states, or “signatory jurisdictions,” to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The jurisdictions in the Northeast region consists of 12 states including Connecticut, which itself has a target of scouring the air of more than 13 billion tons of carbon dioxide beginning in 2023.

Funding will come from a complex cap-andinvest scheme for fuel distributors and an increase in the gasoline tax. TCI will then “invest $300 million every year to modernize transportation, improve public health and combat climate change” back into the jurisdictions.

According to its own design, TCI will rely on environmentalists, energy and transportation officials in each jurisdiction, and the attorneys needed to interpret the application of the individual jurisdiction’s obligations as stated in TCI’s memorandum of understanding, or MOU.

Additionally, the MOU stipulates the need for “Equitable Advisory Bodies” in each jurisdiction composed of diverse stakeholder groups, “with a majority of members being representatives of overburdened and underserved communities.”

To date only Connecticut and three other states of the 12 have signed their MOUs. Others are weighing the impact of additional gas taxes. New York State is checking for any overlap with its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act before it commits to the program.

Any program designed help mitigate climate change is commendable. Can TCI get off the ground with its bureaucratic heft in time to meet its goal of reducing vehicle emissions in the Northeast region by 26 percent by 2032?

Frankly, this is 20th century thinking in a 21st century world.

Gov. Ned Lamont recently said he is looking forward to a “fresh injection of capital to provide new jobs and new infrastructure” from the state’s participation in TCI.

This new infrastructure, in support of 21st century’s emerging growth of electric vehicle use, needs to focus on the installation of more charging stations throughout the state that are powered by renewable energy to meet the demand of the ever-increasing use of electric vehicles. Within two years, electric vehicles could displace oil demand by 2 million barrels. By 2040, electric vehicles will represent 35 percent of all vehicles sold worldwide.

Whether funding comes from TCI or the Paris Climate Agreement, in which cities and states could look forward to federal partnerships to decarbonize transportation to net zero emissions by 2050, the road ahead must be clear to everyone.