Rhode Island has joined Connecticut in failing to enact enabling legislation for the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P), which both states pledged last year to implement.
A bill that would have authorized TCI-P deployment in Rhode Island did not make it through the state legislature before its session ended last week.
The Rhode Island Senate passed the Transportation Emissions and Mobile (TEAM) Community Act (S 0872A) on June 22, but a companion bill (H 6310) did not pass out of the House Finance Committee.
A planned special session later this year, however, offers another opportunity for the House of Representatives to pass the bill.
While the legislature is planning to come back into session this year, no date has been announced, Daniel Trafford, a spokesperson for the General Assembly, told NetZero Insider. It is likely that the special session would be held after the summer, he said.
The state’s legislative leadership also has not indicated which bills will be taken up, he said, adding that “it is certainly a possibility,” that the TEAM Community Act could be on the list.
The nonprofit Acadia Center is urging House leaders to prioritize and pass the act in the anticipated fall session, Hank Webster, Rhode Island director and staff attorney, told NetZero Insider.
“Rhode Island legislators passed the milestone Act on Climate earlier this year, setting critical greenhouse gas emissions reductions into law,” Webster said. “Transportation is the state’s largest contributor of greenhouse gas and air pollution causing asthma, cardiovascular disease and premature deaths. That’s why [Gov. Dan] McKee’s administration and the Senate are backing the regional and bipartisan TCI Program as one measure that helps our state invest in cleaner mobility for everyone.”
Rhode Island joined Massachusetts, Connecticut and D.C. in signing a memorandum of understanding in December to implement the program, which aims to cut emissions from transportation 26% over 10 years.
Connecticut’s legislature was unable to pass its authorizing legislation (Governor’s Bill 884) this spring. (See TCI-P Faces Uncertain Future in Connecticut.)
The fate of Connecticut’s legislation had an impact in Rhode Island, Paul Craney, spokesperson for the nonprofit Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said in a statement Friday.
“While gasoline is surpassing $3/gallon and inflation is devaluing wages, TCI is about to make matters worse for working people and low-income families in order to subsidize electric cars for the affluent,” he said.
Modeling has shown TCI-P could increasing retail gas prices in participating jurisdictions by 5 cents/gallon in 2023. Initial emissions reporting is set to begin in 2022 under the model rule that TCI released in June, with first auctions and compliance requirements starting in 2023.
“At some point, the regional approach to TCI is going to lose whatever credibility it has left when it’s just Massachusetts entering into the agreement next year,” Craney said.
Massachusetts does not require legislative approval to implement the program. In D.C., the Department of Energy and Environment and Department of Transportation are working with district leadership to establish a local program that implements TCI-P next year.
As written, the TEAM Community Act would create the foundation for a cap-and-invest program based on the TCI model rule.
Under the state’s program, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) would establish the necessary regulations for limiting and reducing carbon emissions from transportation fuel supplied by as yet undefined regulated entities.
DEM would conduct auctions to sell carbon emission allowances, which the regulated entities could purchase and trade in a possible multijurisdictional market. Those entities would surrender allowances equivalent to the carbon emissions that result from the fuel they supply in the state.
Auction proceeds would support TCI-P goals of promoting clean transportation and improving mobility for residents, with no less than 35% to benefit “overburdened and underserved communities.” DEM also would establish an equity and environmental justice advisory board to ensure those communities have a say in how the state invests program proceeds.