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Transportation Climate Initiative dispute heats up – Boston Herald


Tension is mounting over the Transportation Climate Initiative, the multistate compact that would raise gas prices in Massachusetts in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions, in anticipation of a draft policy proposal that will soon be released.

“It’s a back door way of trying to pass a gas tax,” said Holly Robichaud, a Republican strategist who successfully fought to repeal a gas-tax hike in 2014. “They talk about how they need more revenue and yet this is the second year in a row the state has had over a billion dollars in increased revenue. Instead of looking at that they want to milk the taxpayers. Enough is enough. We are not an ATM.”

A memorandum of understanding for the Transportation Climate Initiative, which would charge fuel companies for the carbon emissions associated with the gas and diesel they sell, is expected to be released this month.

Half of the money raised through fees would go toward Gov. Charlie Baker’s $18 billion transportation bond bill, which includes major investments in the MBTA. The revenue source is being considered as the Legislature tries to decide what to do with the $1 billion surplus in the state budget.

“When we look at what I call the tax collusion initiative of TCI, it is nothing more than a gas tax,” state Rep. Marc Lombardo said.

Baker touted the collaboration as part of a series of initiatives meant to act as an elixir for climate change at the Transportation and Climate Initiative Business Summit in Boston on Wednesday. The transportation sector is the “next big space” to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy, Baker said, since it now represents 40% of all emissions.

“This gives us the ability to create a framework where the resources that are raised as a result of this initiative go into things that are believed to be tools that can be used to continue to reduce emissions,” Baker said in his keynote Wednesday. “I believe this will be one of the most important regional initiatives in reducing carbon emissions anywhere in the U.S.”



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