Idea 2. Establish an annual Carbon Eraser Head and Bed Tax to fund low carbon mobility including pass-less electric and fuel cell buses as well as other point to point options

More than 30 percent of the carbon added to our air results from carbon-powered mobility. The CE mobility goal is to get people and things to their destinations with the lowest cost in carbon and dollars per mile traveled. CE enterprises stimulate decarbonization and prove that carbon-free is as economically rewarding as it is environmentally imperative.

The head and bed tax would promote a shared annual tax on businesses, employees, and residents to fund free electric buses. If a CE mobility program is funded by everyone who enjoys a positive impact, the price is modest and more affordable than present options.

As an example, the best system we can likely negotiate with RTD is improved regional service with Via-provided local electric buses, paid for by an annual tax of $50 per job and $50 per legal bedroom in Boulder, possibly including dormitories, hotels, and even hospitals. A single in-commuter working in Boulder would pay $50 per year for free bus service and a family of four with two jobs and two children in a three-bedroom home would pay $250 per year. The positive CE mobility impact includes something for everybody, starting with cleaner air and a stronger economy but also including congestion relief for automobile drivers.

Another is to create a Carbon Eraser EV point to point mobility option in Boulder with a CE app on smartphones, supported by an Uber and Lyft partnership, bringing the closest-available carbon-free EV to users. Several app strategies are now being explored. This enterprise’s incentive, beyond great PR, would be the market power of a lower cost in both carbon and dollars per mile traveled. Strategies have been demonstrated by the Door to Downtown test designed by Rocky Mountain Institute and the City of Boulder. https://www.rmi.org/news/door-downtown-boulder-colorado-tested-future-mobility/

Carbon Eraser TM: September 10, 2018 – The Profitable Path to a Carbon-Clean Future. A coordinated program with an organization like Boulder’s Via https://viacolorado.org/ would bring last mile and paratransit into the CE carbon-free mobility story. An important environmental outcome of the coordinated CE energy ecology is having enough installed capacity of carbon-free electricity generation to economically transition away from being a city mostly heated by natural gas to a distributed generation carbon free community.

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