It's payback time for the Oil Industry. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking out for his friends and backers by making sure Californians are forced to stay in their cars and pay huge gas gouging prices ($4.37 per gallon today) instead of switching to public mass transit.
Already transit ridership is soaring in California. But Schwarzenegger is unmoved and now chooses to make a second round of MASSIVE cuts in transit funding in the California State budget.
Schwarzenegger is transparent; he shows he cares primarily for the profits of Big Oil -- or he would embrace the soaring transit ridership as a precursor of other state savings including:
o fewer cars on the roads mean reduced road wear and tear (oops! but that would mean less oil industry profit from road resurfacing using an Oil Industry product -- asphalt -- at millions of dollars per mile)...
o less car use means our cars will last longer which means fewer car sales (oops! but that would lead to fewer profits for car companies)
o fewer cars on the roads mean fewer car accidents, which means fewer claims and less rate hikes for insurers (oops! but that would lead to stable, rather than rising, insurance rates and that would reduce insurance industry profits)
o fewer cars means cleaner air which means healthier breathing and less illness for Californians (oops! but that would lead to fewer profits for the medical industry)
Mass Transit is a part of a whole picture of good things, measurable good things that certain industries are not prepared to see take hold. It would serve these industries to see this trend to transit NIPPED IN THE BUD, and there is Governor Arnold ready with the budget pruners, just like he was last year, when he reduced transit funds by about a third.
Schwarzenegger is supposed to work for the people, so the greater good should come first and Mass Transit should be a priority. Arnold is not fooling anyone about where he stands -- in the pocket of the Big Unregulated Trusts.