If we are to blame industry, rather than people, the US auto industry is more to blame for climate change than the oil industry.

Some people tend to blame fossil fuel industry for climate change. I tend to blame consumption more than production, but if we are to blame industry, I blame the automobile industry more.

Around half of all new cars, sold in China, are electric. If it wasn't for import restrictions, less expensive electric cars would be available here. The American auto industry would be devastated. This includes many union jobs as well, so that's why it's not happening.

Then there is the power grid. Suddenly flooding the market with electric cars would require upgrades there.

I still think alternative transit is more the solution, but solutions are usually a mix of many strategies.

As for oil industry destroying the public transit that we had many years back, I think the auto industry is more to blame.

I've seen videos, made in the 1950s by General Motors. Back then, there were a lot of different kinds of busses, trolleys and trains in our cities. Some were electric, others diesel.

This patchwork of largely private systems was starting to fall into disrepair. The automobile and interstate highway system was on the rise. GM and others had plans to standardize buses for simpler maintenance. One style of bus with standardized parts.

They pushed diesel, instead of electric, for more flexibility as electric could not go away from the overhead wires. They also could make a profit selling the standardized buses.

As suburbs spread out, the diesel buses could follow while electric was confined to major routes along the wire. I would guess another factor is that overhead wiring is seen as unsightly.

I remember, during my childhood, seeing electric buses in Seattle with the driver outside the bus using a long pole to reattach the bus to the overhead wires. Back then, the connections weren't as reliable as today.

At the start of my college days, Seattle was removing overhead transit wires, but reversed that process when the 1970s oil crisis hit. By the mid 1970s, Seattle decided to keep and even add to it's electric bus system which works well today.