High Cost Rail - Part 136 CEQA Lives

Legal victories for the people seeking to protect taxpayers, landowners, and the environment from the ravages of High Cost Rail are few and far between.  Even when won, they are sometimes undercut or slyly ignored.  So last week's ruling was a breath of fresh air.  The L.A. Times notes 

U.S. law does not allow state-owned rail projects to completely bypass California’s strict environmental regulations, the state Supreme Court said Thursday in a decision that ensures further legal complications for the planned $64-billion bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“It basically says that California has a right to control its own railroads and decide whether they should be required to consider carefully the environmental impacts of their projects,” said Stuart Flashman, who represents several San Francisco Bay Area cities in a lawsuit that contends the bullet train project violates state environmental law.

Other sources provided this layman's version of the ruling

In a nutshell, the court ruled that Congress could interfere with a state's operation of its own business property only when it was "unmistakably clear" that it intended to do so. That showing had not been made to the court's satisfaction, so in such cases CEQA was not categorically preempted by the federal statute providing for the regulations of railroads in interstate commerce.

Here's hoping for some real environmental protection!

 

Comments

[Wake Up to Reality]

How long will the reporters parrot the $64 billion dollar cost estimate? You would have to be an ostrich to believe that will cover even half of the real cost. Where is the Carl Bernstein of high-speed rail? Where are the green eye shade bean counters? Where are the unions who want their bucks being sucked away by this fraud?

[Unions Love High Speed Fail]

Hey "Wake Up", can you explain what you mean by "Where are the unions who want their bucks being sucked away by this fraud?"

You do realize that the many unions probably LOVE the High Speed Fail project because it creates a tremendous amount of spending on both trades and also on the construction companies that so many former politicians like to create out of the blue just to "win" the contracts on these mega infrastructure projects, right?

The Unions run California, folks. Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom are just their figure heads.

[Bruce Dickinson]

The two comments above appear to be coming from the same person, though they would lead one to believe that a "debate" is occurring between two people!?!?

Can anyone pronounce Multiphasic Personality Disorder?

Bruce Dickinson cannot be fooled!

[Wake Up to Reality]

I'm not argueing with myself. At least not on high speed rail. Unions love high speed fail fails to see the difference between the mostly private construction unions who love it and the government service unions who are waking up to the giant sucking sound that is swallowing their pensions. Once Jerry is out of office I bet the government unions get their fair haired boy Newsome to kill the choo choo.

[Unions Love High Speed Fail]

Bruce, you are once again - incorrect.

You should up your dose of Coumadin. http://www.strokecenter.org/patients/stroke-treatment/stroke-medications/anticoagulants/

"Wake Up", it's true various groups will benefit or not benefit from high speed fail.

Won't it be run by Caltrans related public unions, like BART?

[[email protected]]

MPD...
What is your problem with Union Workers?
I bet "Dollars to Donuts" that you have no viable argument.
Lets see.
Please respond.

[Unions Love High Speed Fail]

Holly, Bruce, Wake Up and others,

My point is that the High Speed Rail is mostly a "Make Work" project to please the Trades Unions including the future Caltrans-related Union that will run the HSR.

Unions have their time and place to balance power and to protect worker's rights and a reasonable compensation for them. However, power corrupts, and I believe that many Unions have a long track record of not only abusive power and internal corruption, but also a proven direct connection with organized crime (for decades throughout California and the United States).

Thus, the residents of California and even the workers that currently belong to Unions would be better off, if voters stopped supporting Democrat candidates like Gavin Newsom who clearly represent the Union power and thus corruption.

Public employee Unions are especially problematic for several reasons, which this Praeger U video enumerates:

"Do Big Unions Buy Politicians?" - Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxeJvO5xcio

Overall, the high speed rail referendum has been violated by the govt agency by not having all of the financing in place before construction started. It is mostly a regional transportation solution and it will not significantly improve local transportation problems. HSR should be haulted immediately and those funds should be used to extend BART, and to encourage electric cars, and to explore better solutions like Elon Musk's Hyper Loop.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/elon-musk-teases-york-dc-hyperloop-48767954

[Bruce Dickinson]

Wrap your little noggins around this: with driverless cars and driverless buses, you will have no need for HSR, LSR, Electric Caltrain, Sam Trans, you will have fewer accidents, vastly diminished labor (driver) and infrastructure costs, better on-time performance, and a much improved allocation of resources.

Take the most powerful unions in California, the Teacher's Union and the Prison Guards Union. You think their jobs won't be subject to some degree of automation in the future?

Folks, robotics and Artificial Intelligence advancements will completely shift your paradigms of thinking, and frankly, will help eliminate some problems, but potentially create others.

[Unions Love High Speed Fail]

True.