$11 Billion in Health Benefits by 2032, Says New Harvard Study on Transportation Climate Initiative
Wednesday, October 07, 2020
The study released this week says that the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast could realize up to $11 billion in health benefits under TCI.
TCI is a regional collaboration of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia that "seeks to improve transportation, develop the clean energy economy and reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector."
The study, led by a team of researchers from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston University, University of North Carolina, and Columbia University, says that health benefits for the five TCI climate mitigation policy scenarios are "substantial and larger than estimated program costs."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSpecifically, the researchers said health benefits in the TCI region "could reach as much as $11.1 billion per year" by 2032, and up to 1,100 deaths could be avoided along with 4,700 childhood asthma cases -- per year -- in that time frame.
The results from the study are preliminary.
Kathy Fallon Lambert, with the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard, spoke with GoLocal about the research, and coming to the conclusions of health benefits based on looking at "active mobility" -- and air quality.
"[TCI is looking at] investing in more pedestrian and biking infrastructure, and opportunities for safe biking and walking," said Lambert. "When you invest more in the infrastructure, that physical activity has a benefit of reduced mortality. There are numerous studies that look at what are the benefits to reduced mortality with more minutes of walking and biking a day — it’s been pretty well studied."
"The second type of benefit we looked at is air quality," said Lambert. "When you reduce tail pipe emissions the target of the production is a reduction of co-pollutants — and better air quality and positive health outcomes."
Latest for TCI
The announcement marks the latest development pertaining to TCI, which last fall saw 12 states (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia) and the District of Columbia commit to releasing a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a regional policy to clean up and modernize transportation through a cap-and-invest approach.
Last December, New Hampshire announced it would not take part, and in February, Virginia indicated it would not as well.
Now, the proposed framework of their cap-and-invest program to cut transportation emissions -- and final Memorandum of Understanding -- is now expected sometime in the fall of 2020, at which point, each jurisdiction will decide whether to sign the MOU and participate in the regional program.
In Rhode Island, opponents have cited the costs of the program in urging Governor Gina Raimondo not to sign on.
“They want to make gasoline so expensive that you’ll be forced to use less of it. This money isn’t going to rebuild infrastructure like normal gas taxes — this would be used to advance a green agenda,” said Mike Stenhouse, CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, on GoLocal LIVE last December.
Rhode Island Trucking Association President and CEO Chris Maxwell has also voiced concerns.
"TCI aims to change behavior and consumption by moving people toward electrification through the imposition of a 'sin tax,'" said Maxwell last year. “There is no more valuable a partner to the noble cause of conservation, reduced emissions, and efficiency, but we also have a critical task at hand which is to move our nation’s freight. TCI is problematic to us as business owners."
Addressing Health Disparities
TCI proponents say that the new study shows that the health benefits of TCI will likely be greatest in areas where pollution is concentrated -- and communities who have long been disproportionately impacted.
"For far too long, the costs of harmful air pollution from fossil fuel-powered cars, trucks and buses has been disproportionately shouldered by the most vulnerable communities," said Our Transportation Future (OTF), a coalition of national, regional, and local environmental, transportation, health, scientific and business groups who support TCI.
OTF said that according to a 2019 Union of Concerned Scientists study, ‘on average, communities of color in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic breathe 66 percent more air pollution from vehicles than white residents’.
"I just want to reiterate under these TCI scenarios there would be widespread health benefits — concentrated in more populate areas," said Lambert.
Editor's Note: The story has been updated to reflect that the results of the study are preliminary.
Updated Wednesday 10:17 AM
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