NY for TCI is a campaign led by public interest organizations, businesses, and individuals demanding healthier, more equitable, sustainable, affordable, and accessible transportation solutions for all New Yorkers through a regional Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) program.

The Transportation and Climate Initiative program is a collaborative effort between New York and 11 other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and Washington, D.C. to curb harmful pollution and invest in better, cleaner, safer modes of travel across New York State and the region. The program would utilize a “cap-and-invest” approach to help solve longstanding transportation challenges. It would work as follows:

• New York and other participating states would set a regional limit, or cap, on the amount of climate-damaging carbon pollution that can be emitted by transportation fuels like gasoline and diesel. This cap would decline over time, reducing pollution. Because burning fossil fuels in vehicle engines releases other health-harming pollution, the regional cap would also help reduce other pollutants with the benefit of cleaning up our air.
• Oil companies that supply polluting transportation fuels would be required to comply with the pollution cap by purchasing carbon “allowances,” each equal to one ton of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted when the fuels they sell are burned in vehicle engines. These allowances would be sold at auction, generating new funds. The total number of allowances made available each year would be limited to the level of the pollution cap, and decline over time, to ensure pollution reductions.
• New York would determine how best to use its share of the carbon allowance funds to invest in local, in-state transportation solutions that benefit residents, particularly historically marginalized communities.

The ways we move around–by foot, bicycle, public transit, or car–are vital to our daily lives. Yet too often these transportation networks fail us–through traffic jams, crumbling infrastructure, inaccessibility, unaffordability, and other ways. This leads to frustration, higher costs, and delays that inhibit New Yorkers from getting to work, schools, doctor’s appointments, friends and family, and other places and opportunities safely and efficiently.

At the same time, the transportation sector is a major source of health-harming pollution like soot and smog that contributes to asthma attacks, heart and lung disease, premature deaths—even increased rates of mortality from the COVID-19 virus. Transportation vehicles using fuels like gasoline and diesel are responsible for more than 40 percent of New York’s carbon pollution, the key driver of climate change which puts lives, homes, and businesses at risk.

Many of these problems are decades in the making, but with an equitable and sustainable TCI program, they don’t have to be our road ahead.

Transportation pollution and our roads and bridges don’t stop at state lines, so New York and other states developing the TCI program are proposing a regional approach to tackle these issues together.

At a time when federal government leadership is absent or lacking, the TCI program would leverage the ability of states like New York to work with other states in a bipartisan way, to tackle big, shared problems in transportation. Together, we can create a better, stronger regional transportation system and economy that makes the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic healthier, more livable, more equitable and more sustainable.

A well-designed, equitable TCI program could provide significant economic, health, environmental, and jobs benefits to New York and across the region. Analysis of the proposed program shows that it could cut regional carbon pollution from gasoline and diesel use by 25 percent in a decade. It also could grow the region’s economy by more than $5 billion, support nearly 9,000 new jobs, and provide $10 billion a year in public health benefits by 2032, reducing asthma attacks, pollution-related deaths, and traffic injuries and deaths.

New York could reap up to $1.4 billion a year from the program’s carbon allowance funds, which is money available for the state to invest in transformative and equitable transportation solutions that benefit all New Yorkers, such as:

• Complete streets safe for walking, biking, and rolling;
• Modern and resilient infrastructure;
• Safe, convenient, reliable, and affordable public transportation, including in rural areas and for people with disabilities;
• Accessible transportation options that meet or exceed the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act;
• Affordable, equitable housing near job and transit centers;
• Clean electric school buses, transit buses, cars, and trucks;
• Improved access to broadband to enable telecommuting, increase access to services, and help reduce the need to drive; and
• Other innovative transportation programs across New York State.

Under the TCI program, governors and legislatures in individual states like New York would determine how best to use their state’s share of the program’s carbon allowance funds to deliver benefits to residents. Such decisions might be determined through state legislation or development of annual investment plans. Across the region, the program is expected to generate up to $6.25 billion a year for investment. New York’s share of these proceeds is estimated at up to $1.4 billion a year.

Importantly, New York’s nation-leading climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), requires that at least 35 to 40 percent of the benefits from TCI program spending, and spending under other state climate programs, go to historically underserved and disadvantaged communities in the state, such as environmental justice and low-income communities.

To ensure that New York’s TCI investments are equitable and sustainable and benefit communities, NY for TCI advocates for the inclusion of strong safeguards and standards in the final TCI program. Specifically, we call on New York State to commit to:

• Enhanced, genuine outreach to disadvantaged communities on the design and implementation of the program;
• Guaranteed investments in disadvantaged communities, consistent with the CLCPA’s minimum 35 to 40 percent of benefits requirement;
• A strong transportation carbon cap that will achieve pollution reductions, consistent with the CLCPA’s requirement to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions statewide by 2050;
• Sustained tracking to ensure that local benefits, including pollution reductions, improved air quality, and job creation, are achieved; and
• Continuous reporting, monitoring, transparency, and improvement to ensure the TCI program achieves equitable and sustainable outcomes.

All New Yorkers stand to benefit from cleaner air and clean transportation investments under an equitable and sustainable TCI program.

We are collecting ideas on the kinds of clean transportation investments New Yorkers would like to see under a TCI program (and other complementary programs) to improve transportation and provide benefits in their communities, and are displaying many of these ideas on a map available here. Please visit the map page and let us know what your ideas are for how TCI funds could best be used to improve transportation in your community or area of the state.

We also encourage you to provide input directly to New York policymakers and other TCI states by submitting a public comment here about why you support New York’s participation in an equitable and sustainable TCI program and how you would like to see the state invest its share of the program’s funds.

The proposed TCI program would require oil companies that supply gasoline and diesel transportation fuels to pay for their carbon pollution. Oil companies will face a choice: continue to pollute and pay for their pollution or invest in cleaner fuels and transportation solutions to reduce their costs. By pricing carbon, the TCI program would create a disincentive for polluting transportation fuels and an incentive for investments in cleaner fuels and modes of travel.

If oil companies that continue selling high-polluting fuels choose to pass added costs on to consumers, gas prices could rise an estimated 5 to 17 cents per gallon. While not insignificant, these costs are much lower than large swings in gas prices commonly occurring with broader economic trends and global events. Moreover, oil companies are not required to pass on these costs. And given the industry’s exorbitant profits, they could instead absorb the costs—and still be highly profitable.

Importantly, if oil companies choose to raise consumers’ gas prices, New York can ensure New Yorkers come out ahead. The state can use TCI program funds to invest in convenient, accessible, and affordable clean transportation solutions, including more alternatives to driving, that will provide both economic and public health benefits to New Yorkers. Such investments will help break the oil companies’ monopoly on our transportation choices and will help New Yorkers get off the gas price rollercoaster.

In 2019, Governor Cuomo and state legislative leaders adopted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), a nation-leading commitment to tackle climate change that includes reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions statewide by 2050. The CLCPA will require efforts in all of New York’s economic sectors, including transportation, which on its own accounts for nearly half of the state’s carbon pollution emissions.

An equitable and sustainable TCI program could play a significant role in tackling transportation pollution and help set New York on a path to meeting the CLCPA’s targets by bringing healthier, more equitable, sustainable, affordable, and accessible transportation options to the state. This includes improved mass transit; zero-emission electric buses, cars, and trucks; more affordable transit-oriented housing and development; and more safe streets for walking, biking, and rolling.

The CLCPA further requires that at least 35 to 40 percent of the benefits from the state’s climate investments, including investments under the TCI program, go to historically underserved communities, such as Black, Latino, indigenous and other communities of color, and low-income families disproportionally burdened by pollution and associated health harms from living near infrastructure such as ports, airports, highways, and bus and truck depots.

New York and other states are working to finalize the details of the TCI program, and individual states are expected to decide soon whether to move forward. To ensure New York benefits from the program, Governor Hochul must commit to participating, with a decision expected by the end of 2020. The program itself would kick in as soon as 2022.

As states work to finalize the regional TCI program, it is critical that New York lead the way on a program that invests in equitable transportation solutions that prioritize benefits to disadvantaged communities and that help New York and the region protect public health and tackle the climate crisis. Please let Governor Hochul know you support an equitable and sustainable TCI program for New York by signing our NY for TCI letter.

The TCI program is supported by a broad range of individuals and groups representing health, business, transportation, grassroots, clean energy, and environmental perspectives from across New York State. The more than 40 groups participating in the NY for TCI campaign are listed here. Many other New York organizations, businesses, and leaders have also signaled their support through letters, op-eds, and other means.

Public polling shows strong support for the program’s goals to curb pollution and increase transportation options. Two polls, conducted by the non-partisan research firm the MassINC Polling Group and by Public Policy Polling (PPP) for Sierra Club, both found that more than 7 in 10 New York voters support the TCI program. In addition, a poll conducted by New Bridge Strategy and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates for The Nature Conservancy similarly found that two-thirds of small town and rural voters in New York support investing in clean transportation choices and solutions in rural areas of the state under a program like TCI.

If you who would like to express your support, please sign our NY for TCI letter to Governor Hochul. Let her know that you support New York’s participation in an equitable and sustainable TCI program. Please also visit our Take Action page, where you can learn about other ways to get involved, such as by sharing information about NY for TCI and the proposed TCI program on social media, or writing a letter to the editor to your local paper.

If you represent a business or organization interested in becoming a public supporter of the NY for TCI campaign, please let us know by filling out this form, and we will be in touch. Let’s reimagine transportation together!