SF Chronicle: California lawmakers push for ‘essential’ funds for high-speed rail before Trump takes office
By Sophia Bollag
California lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to approve more than half a billion dollars in funding for the state’s embattled high-speed rail project ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff joined Reps. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino; Jim Costa, D-Fresno; and Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, on Friday in calling for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to approve $536 million for the project. In a letter addressed to Buttigieg, they called the project “essential.”
The money would fund design work on the first two segments of the project from Bakersfield to Palmdale (Los Angeles County) and from Gilroy to a junction point in the Central Valley south of Chowchilla (Madera County). Specifically, the money would fund the designing of tunnels through the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California and through the Pacheco Pass in Northern California.
Eventually, project officials plan to link the high-speed rail routes with other existing and planned rail routes, including the privately run Brightline West high-speed rail project in Southern California.
“These investments will continue to support living wage jobs, provide small business opportunities, and equitably enhance the mobility of communities in need — including disadvantaged agricultural communities — all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” the lawmakers wrote.
California voters initially approved $10 billion in bond funding for the project in 2008. At the time, it was projected to cost $33 billion and be completed by 2020. Sixteen years later, the project has blown past both of those estimates. Its projected costs have soared to between $89 billion and $128 billion. Even under the rosiest projections, no segments will be completed and ready for riders until 2030 at the earliest.
The Democrats’ letter comes as their Republican colleagues have taken aim at the project. Republicans have long decried the high-speed rail plan as a boondoggle that should be abandoned, and they’ve intensified their criticism since Trump won the election last month. Even if the Biden administration approves Democrats’ funding request, Trump could move to revoke it when he takes office.
One of the Republicans’ main critiques has been the ballooning price of the project. Ironically, if they succeed in persuading Trump to terminate funding for the project, it could spark a flurry of litigation and delay work for years, driving up the cost further.
California’s application for the high-speed rail funds is just one pending request before the federal government that Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, are urging Biden to approve before Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Earlier this week, the Biden administration granted one of those outstanding requests when it approved California’s ability to ban new gas-powered cars by 2035. Like many policies that require federal approval, Trump could seek to reverse that decision when he takes power, a move California would probably challenge in court.
Read the full article here.