WASHINGTON – A newly proposed 12-state initiative put forth by an unaccountable quasi-public body run out of a private university in the name of clean transportation is in reality a plan to charge drivers tens of billions of dollars in exchange for barely 1 percent of that amount in environmental benefits.
CEA submitted public comments into the Transportation & Climate Initiative policy development process which, unusually, has offered the public little substantive information, other than a draft MOU and a brief webinar outlining its plan to tax people across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
“CEA has long supported policies that continue our environmental progress while pursuing and maintaining sensible, affordable and reliable energy solutions. TCI, as currently proposed, offers none of these policy goals. In short, TCI is a terrible investment for consumers, families and businesses, because even at its lowest tax levels, gasoline customers will be paying 5-17 cents more per gallon in the first year and as much as 10-35 cents a gallon later,” CEA Vice President for State Affairs Brydon Ross said.
“Even more concerning is the fact that 12 states are behind the initiative, but are not bound by the draft agreement to submit these proposed taxes to their legislatures. Consumers may not know what hit them until they get a nasty surprise at the gas pump.
“What’s worse is that, even using TCI’s conservative estimates, consumers could pay $56 billion to get $890 million – at the most – in environmental improvements. There are far smarter and less expensive ways to continue the already-impressive environmental improvement we are making as a nation without burdening every sector of the economy and hurting our families, small businesses and farmers.”
“We urge everyone in the affected states to ask their local legislators for greater clarity about how their state plans to implement a new and significant tax burden that fails to offer any real environmental benefits. The TCI will affect them, even if they don’t drive. The cost of transportation would spike, and that will be passed on to them in one form or another.”
The Georgetown University Climate Center is supporting the plan that the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia have joined along with the District of Columbia.
###
About Consumer Energy Alliance
Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) is the leading consumer advocate for energy, bringing together families, farmers, small businesses, distributors, producers and manufacturers to support America’s environmentally sustainable energy future. With more than 550,000 members nationwide, our mission is to help ensure stable prices and energy security for households and businesses across the country. CEA works daily to encourage people across the nation to seek sensible, realistic and environmentally responsible solutions to meeting our energy needs.
Contact:
Bryson Hull
P: 202-657-2855
bhull@consumerenergyalliance.org