In Virginia, a conservative think tank is now touting a biased analysis, dismissed by critics as misleading “scare tactics,” authored by anti-environmental attorney David Schnare, that questions Virginia’s legal authority to participate in the regional program.
The Transportation and Climate Initiative aims to reduce carbon emissions from on-road vehicles by up to 25 percent over 10 years through a cap-and-invest model, whereby fuel suppliers and distributors would purchase allowances allocated under the cap, and proceeds would be invested into clean transportation initiatives. The program is modeled after the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative for the power sector, which is expected to result in CO2 emission reductions of 45 percent below 2005 levels by this year. But critics of the TCI proposal, many of whom also opposed RGGI, claim that it will do little to cut emissions and is just a scheme to raise gas prices, equivalent to a gas tax.
According to a legal analysis on Virginia’s participation in the program, published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, “TCI proposes rationing gasoline and diesel fuel sales and initiating a per gallon gas tax hike.” David Schnare, who wrote the analysis, claims that the program would impose not a fee but a tax and therefore requires authorization by the state legislature. Virginia’s governor, Schnare says, does not have unilateral authority to join TCI. Schnare also threatens to sue should Virginia attempt to join TCI without authorization by the legislature.
“We hope the Governor simply chooses to withdraw,” Schnare said. “But any effort to impose TCI unilaterally without the General Assembly will certainly be met with appropriate legal action.”
“Nothing in the TCI program would ration gasoline and motor fuels. TCI would simply put a limit on climate pollution,” said Mark Kresowik, eastern region deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, emphasizing that TCI is not a tax by any legal standard.
Longtime Climate Science Foe David Schnare Uses 'Scare Tactics' to Bash Transportation Climate Initiative for Koch-Tied Think Tank | DeSmog
https://www.desmogblog.com/...s-scare-tactics-bash-transportation-climate-initiative-koch-tied-think