TCI Interstate Carbon Tax Is Imploding

January 15, 2020

by Rob Roper

The ink wasn’t dry on the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) memorandum of understanding before Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) declared it a “boondoggle” that his state would never support. That first domino fell hard, now several others are teetering.

In Connecticut, Governor Ted Lamont (D-CT), who has an approval rating of 24 percent and is already bleeding political capital over his plan to bring back tolls on interstate highways, wants absolutely nothing to do with some cockamamie gas tax. Said Lamont about TCI, “…raising that gas tax, frankly, is what other states — mainly Republican states — have done to pay for transportation. I think it’s 100% paid for by Connecticut residents and probably not the way the to go.”

In Maine, Governor Janet Mills had been a strong supporter of TCI until word started to get out that increasing the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel was both regressive in nature and especially punitive to rural constituents. Maine, like Vermont, is almost entirely rural. So now feeling the heat, Mills is changing her tune. According to the Boston Globe, the Maine Democrat’s office said that “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.”

Rhode Island Governor Gina Riamondo (D-RI) is still on board with TCI, but that state’s speake

r of the house Nicholas Mattiello is not so sure. According to the Providence Journal, he “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.’”

And, here in Vermont during his State of the State speech last week Governor Scott said, without naming TCI specifically, that “I simply cannot support proposals that will make things more expensive for [rural and low income Vermonters].” Scott has be vehemently opposed to any form of carbon tax since his first run for governor in 2016.

If New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island don’t participate in the TCI program, that would leave Massachusetts, whose governor, Charlie Baker, is probably TCI’s biggest booster, completely isolated. Baker himself is under increasing pressure by a growing, bi-partisan group of legislators who don’t like the regressive nature of the tax.

Rob Roper is president of the Ethan Allen Institute

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

forbes morrell January 17, 2020 at 3:19 pm

Could any Vermonter ever conceive what this state would look like, tax wise, if not for the sound policies of New Hampshire ? They are the bench mark for New England and hopefully for ever or we are all domed !

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Roger Joslin January 18, 2020 at 2:16 pm

THERE IS NO CLIMATE CRISIS!!!

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Richard Lagro January 19, 2020 at 4:15 pm

Lets all hope this trend against T.C.I. continues.

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Mike January 19, 2020 at 4:32 pm

If Gov. Charlie is so keen on TCI, let him have it. Why make it so complicated??????

Reply

Bill January 23, 2020 at 3:54 am

TCI is just another pretext to get their sticky fingers into your wallet to save a world that is actually doing just fine without their ideas and doesn’t need any of their preposterous schemes to solve a problem that does not exist.

But it would give them a lot of money to throw around.

“It’s not that liberals aren’t smart, it’s just that so much of what they know isn’t so” –Ronald Reagan

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