High Cost Rail - Part 123 Show Me 'Da Money!

The true believers in high-speed, high-cost rail got some bad news this week--not that it will dissuade them from admitting this boondoggle will never work, but it was an financial wake-up call.  The Wall Street Journal noted

A mere 2% of the carbon emissions credits that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) put up for auction in May were sold. The quarterly auction raised only $10 million of the $500 million that CARB projected. That’s awful news for Democrats in Sacramento who planned to spend the windfall on high-speed rail, housing and electric-car subsidies.

CARB’s auctions kicked off in 2012 with robust demand and have raised nearly $5 billion. But demand has shrunk this year amid regulatory and legal risks. The California Chamber of Commerce has challenged the auctions as an illegal tax that CARB imposed without the constitutionally required two-thirds vote of the legislature.

Cap-and-trade revenues are supposed to fund only projects that reduce emissions, and the state Legislative Analyst’s Office has questioned whether the funding recipients are doing so. For instance, the bullet train will release more carbon over the next three decades.

There have been several studies that arrived at the conclusion that high-cost rail will generate more carbon than it would save even if the grotesquely inflated ridership estimates came true.  If you ever hear anyone talking about how green the HSR system will be, please tell them to go do their homework.

Bottom Line:  No private money, not much Federal money, much less cap-and-trade money and maybe none if the lawsuit pans out.  And for all this, we get to pay an extra 12 cents per gallon of gas for a few decades.  Lousy deal. 

Comments

[Bruce Dickinson]

Well, Joe I gotta tell ya, in a siege, if you can't defeat the enemy with weapons, you starve it into submission. Sadly, the latter means that more time, money, jobs, and expenditure of non-productive resources are squandered for years, with little to no benefit. That money could be used for so many more things that make logical sense.

Bruce Dickinson is quite tired of the incompetence of elected and non-elected officials, in that they can never admit they were wrong until everything falls apart, and that usually happens under somebody else's watch when they're no longer in office!

[Which policies make for a more fiscally stable and a fiscally healthy State?]

I like to consider myself "Independent", especially since I live in The Bay Area...

However, I'd love to see a live debate that focuses on which policies make for a more fiscally stable and a fiscally healthy State in the long run (better able to pay for its promises and projects now AND in the future).

What do you think?

http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/best-run-states-are-heavily-republican-study-finds/

[Cathy Baylock]

I was just thinking today it would be nice if the CA legislature did an annual report on the outcomes or results of the 500 or so new laws they pass each year. Nah. It probably would crash their antiquated main frame...

[Bruce Dickinson]

Guys, listen, the silver lining in this "Trumped up, trickle down economics" in spite of Trumps "foot in mouth" disease, is that the cabinet he has appointed is actually quite strong when it comes to talent and success in life.

People may complain about the billionaires in this cabinet, but I can tell you these people do NOT need gov't jobs to enrich themselves further. Call it coming from experience, as Bruce Dickinson in contemplating any political office, would do it as a desire to serve and help with decision making with nothing really to be gained. In fact, the way government works is likely to drive yours truly or these people, who are used to dealing with effective people and even 'worthy foes' completely bonkers due to incompetence and red tape. In a way, it's like why would any person who has it all really want to serve in these jobs? Surprised Trump is not just hanging out at Mar-A-Lago, which is an amazing property! Bruce Dickinson graced the club with my presence 3-4 times and met DJT once, but alas, I digress.

Any reasonably successful person will look at California's situation and basically cut off all the non-economic, ideologue policy decisions not grounded in any common sense, at the knees. Consider HSR, federal government subsidies, etc to be pretty much dead at this point. Hasn't helped that Gov Moonbeam has humped on the dump Trump bandwagon, which due to Trump's vengefulness, is probably being put at the top of the $hit-list along with his successor and likely the entire State for the next four to eight years.

The technology companies' leaders are privately shaking in their flip-flops as the power is shifted from tech to high-finance and manufacturing. Expect more corporate defections away from CA, including from technology as the State government will not know how to reverse course quickly enough. When people gotten to and been in La-La land for so long, the disconnection from reality will preclude any ability to react to a changing world.

Finally these so-called 'secession plans' for an independent California, due to the heavily pro-socialist, patronizing ideologues entrenched at all levels of government (yes, including Burlingame) will likely fail miserably should people decide to go as an independent country (which alone is unlikely as secession questions were resolved with the Civil War).

Don't say I didn't warn you! *wink*