While the increase is modest, “even a modest increase is problematic,” Dykes said. While the state has set ambitious reduction targets, an emissions inventory released by the environmental agency this year showed that transportation emissions are currently on the rise. That leaves Connecticut scrambling for other aggressive strategies for reducing transportation emissions, which account for nearly 40% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Dan McKee quickly withdrew their support as well. Ned Lamont’s announcement this month that he would no longer push for the enabling legislation needed for the state to join TCI had an immediate domino effect. And some lawmakers feared that the additional cost at the pump would be too burdensome on low-income households.Ĭonnecticut Gov. Critics have assailed the program as a gas tax, because fuel suppliers would likely pass the fee onto consumers. But they have so far failed to garner the support they need to move forward. The governors of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts all signed onto a memorandum of understanding to join the initiative. The revenues generated by the fee, paid by wholesale fuel suppliers, would be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by electrifying buses, installing charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, adding bike lanes and other measures. Joining TCI would have involved placing a fee on carbon in gasoline and diesel. Christine Cohen, co-chair of the legislature’s Environment Committee. Mark Mitchell, an associate professor at George Mason University and a public health specialist, and state Sen. “The TCI dialogue sets us up really well.”ĭykes made her comments during a panel discussion Monday at the annual Northeast Multimodal Transit Summit, hosted remotely by the Transport Hartford Academy at the Center for Latino Progress. “The good news is we have the opportunity to take a lot of those ideas and the results of all of that dialogue as we plan and prioritize our clean transportation investments,” Dykes said.
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Katie Dykes, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, says the lengthy discussions around how to invest TCI revenues equitably, with a focus on environmental justice communities, will inform the administration in a new effort: setting priorities for the billions of dollars in federal funds anticipated from the newly passed infrastructure bill. Connecticut’s top environmental official sees a silver lining amid the collapse of the Transportation and Climate Initiative, the multistate pact that had sought to fund clean transportation investments across the region.
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