Tolled you so

摘要

Strange bedfellows are part of the California scene. Even so, the sight of car companies, oil firms and environmentalists snuggling up together seems a bit odd; even odder is the idea of them coming out in favour of an idea normally associated with right-wing economists. On June 22nd, the California Environmental Dialogue, a new 32-member group including General Motors, Chevron, BP Amoco, the Sierra Club and Environmental Defence, published a paper on the state's transport policy. Much of what the CED proposes in its paper is pretty tame stuff-patching up rickety bridges before they become unsafe, buses for the young, old and infirm, more bike paths. But endorsing the principle that the "user should pay" for road use and that "tolls and congestion pricing should be utilised whenever possible" is a first for the big oil and car firms.