Earlier this month, nine governors and the mayor of Washington, D.C., announced intentions to create and implement a region-wide policy in collaboration to cap and reduce overall emissions from transportation. The announcement marks the most recent step in what’s known as the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) process, a collaboration of 12 states and D.C.
The TCI regional collaboration brought along Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., to the most recent agreement to set a cap on emissions region-wide and reduce emissions then through a cap-and-invest program or other pricing mechanism; any such program would allow each jurisdiction to invest proceeds from the program into low-carbon and more resilient transportation infrastructure.
Read statements from representatives of the governments of each participating state via this link to the TCI’s website, where news of the collaboration on climate was released.Participating states plan to complete the policy development process within a year.
Over the past year, the group has held several listening sessions to engage the public on the process across the region. The TCI was established in 2010 and its goals are sought and directed by state and local jurisdictional agencies after development in collaboration. On its website it singles out these five areas of emphasis:
- Clean Vehicles and Fuels
- Sustainable Communities
- Freight Efficiency
- Information and Communication Technology
- Exploring Regional Policies to Improve Transportation and Reduce Emissions
