article, century-long plot by GM to destroy public transit

http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rehw439.htm

D: Dunno if I buy it, but it does make an interesting story...

"Beginning in the 1920s, General Motors began investing in mass transit systems. According to historian Marty Jezer (and Congressional hearings held in 1974), between 1920 and 1955, General Motors bought up more than 100 electric mass transit systems in 45 cities, allowed them to deteriorate, and then replaced them with rubber-tired, diesel-powered buses. [1] Buses are more expensive, less efficient, and much dirtier than electric/rail systems. (And of course automobiles are even less efficient than buses, by far.) In 1949, General Motors, Firestone Rubber, and Standard Oil of California were convicted by a federal jury of criminally conspiring to replace electric mass transit with GM-manufactured diesel buses..."

D: my mother thinks the loss of viable train systems was subject to a similar conspiracy.
At any rate, vested interests and alotta money backing corporate interests clearly will not serve the public good.

See my earlier entries on why "E-cars" won't solve our present problems.
Rare earth metals for hybrids, platinum for fuel cells, whatever.
Supply and demand and finite resources says "an e-car for every gargage" is doomed to failure.

As an aside, indium has increased in price due to finite supply.
This material, presently needed for better solar cells, is being used up in... television sets.
And we don't even consistently recycle this e-trash...