McKee Drops Support for Transportation and Climate Initiative

McKee Drops Support for Transportation and Climate Initiative

Just one day after Governor Dan McKee's office confirmed that the governor continues to support the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), his administration reversed course and announced that it was dropping its effort to adopt the initiative.

Department of Environmental Management Acting Director Terrence Gray issued the following statement on behalf of Mckee regarding the State of Rhode Island’s participation in the TCI late on Friday.

“The Transportation and Climate Initiative depends upon the involvement of at least three jurisdictions to go forward as a program. Recent events in Connecticut and Massachusetts, however, have made clear that at least for the time being, Rhode Island must explore other options in clean transportation. We must be clear: Rhode Island is on the clock to combat climate change, and we must move forward with a bold initiative to meet net-zero. The Act on Climate law sets mandates, not goals, for the state to reduce greenhouse gases economy-wide. And we will have serious difficulty meeting the new law’s reduction mandates without a strong commitment and plan to reduce emissions from the transportation sector, which contributes nearly 40 percent of carbon emissions in our area. The Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council, which I chair, will be analyzing the federal infrastructure bill and other possible funding streams to ensure that Rhode Island makes progress at replacing dirty, fuel-burning engines with clean, green, zero-emissions transportation options. I look forward to remaining in contact with my counterparts in neighboring states to continue our shared goal of tackling climate change. It demands action now.”

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Earlier this week both Connecticut's Governor Ned Lamont and Massachusetts'Governor Charlie Baker announced they were no longer pushing the initiative.

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Legislators Call for Continued Support

In an opinion piece submitted to GoLocal earlier on Friday, Sen. Alana DiMario and Rep. Terri Cortvriend wrote, "In the decade-plus since the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) was first developed under the [Donald] Carcieri administration, there has been growing, bipartisan consensus that we must end our dependence on fossil fuels for the health of the people in our communities and our planet. No one disputes that reality."

"And in that decade of work and planning and a worsening climate crisis, no one has come up with a better solution to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. TCI would cut greenhouse gas pollution from motor vehicles in the region by an estimated 26% and generate a total of more than $3 billion dollars over 10 years for the participating jurisdictions to invest in equitable, less-polluting transportation options and to help energize economic recovery," the legislators wrote.

They concluded, "As elected officials it is our duty to keep the health and safety of our communities front and center in the decisions that we make. Leading the region in implementing the concepts of TCI does exactly that. For too many decades we have deferred acting on climate change, and there is no more time to waste. If we aren't here to fight for the bold and necessary changes to address the most pressing issues facing us and to reduce the burden on future generations, then why are we here?"