Five state workshops will be held between Oct. 23 and Nov. 4 in Worcester, Bourne, Haverhill, Roxbury, and Holyoke by Massachusetts’ energy, environmental, and transportation agencies to explain the proposed Transportation Climate Initiative to the public.
BOSTON, Oct. 22, 2019 – Five state workshops will be held between Oct. 23 and Nov. 4 in Worcester, Bourne, Haverhill, Roxbury, and Holyoke by Massachusetts’ energy, environmental, and transportation agencies to explain the proposed Transportation Climate Initiative to the public. NFIB, a small business advocacy association with thousands of members in the state, is vehemently opposed to the TCI, believing it will drive up the cost of fuel.
“Reducting emissions is a laudable goal, but in California, where a similar program was launched, gas prices went up by 12 to 14 cents a gallon and are over 4 dollars today,” said Christopher Carlozzi, state director of NFIB in Massachusetts. “Small businesses need their gas-powered vehicles to travel to job sites, to respond to service calls, and to make deliveries–it’s not like they can use public transportation to do that.”
Proponents of TCI say it’s not a tax because fuel suppliers are the targets of increased fees based on the amount of carbon in their product, but the state admits the cost is likely to be passed on to consumers at the pump. The goal of TCI is to dissuade people from driving cars and trucks so often, and increasing the price of fuel modifies behavior. Money raised from the program goes to things such as electric car charging stations and other climate resiliency measures.
“We encourage every driver, every small business, and every consumer who doesn’t want to pay higher prices for goods to go to these public workshops and tell state officials this is a bad policy and yet another tax on residents of the Commonwealth,” added Carlozzi.
