Readers React: Make oil and car companies pay to fix California’s roads

To the editor: The Times encourages lawmakers to pass legislation raising fuel taxes and vehicle fees to pay for repairing our aging transportation infrastructure. The Times is apparently too timid to require the entity that profits the most from our dependence on oil to help fix roads and bridges: the oil companies. (“Brown’s compromise is California’s best bet to fix roads,” editorial, Sept. 6)

More than 500,000 barrels of oil are produced in this state every day, making California the third-largest producer in the country. However, we are the only major oil-producing state without an extraction tax.

It is ridiculous to ask hardworking people to pay more while the companies that are making huge profits have no responsibility to maintain the very infrastructure that enables us to use their product.

The California Modernization and Economic Development Act has been proposed to impose a 9.5% tax on the gross market value of each barrel of oil produced in the state, but it goes awry in using the revenue for multiple non-transportation needs, including education.

The Legislature needs to pass a long-overdue oil extraction tax on these wealthy companies and require the funds to be used on infrastructure, public transportation and renewable energy.

Rick Beardsley, Woodland Hills

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To the editor: The Times’ endorsement of the governor’s proposal to fix California roads effectively demonstrates the sorry state of affairs our car-dependent society has fallen to.

The best anyone is ever able to propose on this problem is to continue to scurry around for more money from everyone except the auto manufacturers. Without our public roads, private car companies have a useless product.

As long as scant alternatives exist for transportation, we remain hostages to automobiles, lovely but dangerous things costing us billions extra long after we have left the dealerships. Let’s bring the automakers into these discussions; they should not be allowed to drive away with all of the profit and so little of the cost of making cars.

Phil Gray, Long Beach

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