Passenger Trains > STB rules It Trumps CA Environmental Law in HSR

This one was hard to track down. First spotted it in the local news, but no further references to source. Found it on the Sacramento Bee (sac.bee.com) website posted today, citing an AP story. Since it is propriety content, can't cut and paste, but, essentially, the Surface Transportation Board has ruled, on a 2-1 vote, it has exclusive authority over the CA High Speed Rail construction with regard to environmental challenges brought under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The ruling was in response to the CA HSR Authority request for clarification on the issue.

There are multiple lawsuits over the construction of the HSR project, utilizing CEQA. The article goes on to state that this ruling may only serve to further muddy the waters, as it is in conflict with a prior Federal court of appeals ruling allow several petitioning municipalities to sue, and, the original State referendum that authorized the project included language that states the project will comply with California environmental regulations.

Who knows, legal fees may outpace the actual project cost.

While personally I don't favor this project, it seems no matter what the project...justified or not...it is almost impossible to get anything of this magnitude done in this country! This is the same country that built the Transcontinental Railroad in how long?

A small discussion started yesterday here:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3604885

Jim Montague
IRVINE, CA
Train and Nature photo Art

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> While personally I don't favor this project, it
> seems no matter what the project...justified or
> not...it is almost impossible to get anything of
> this magnitude done in this country! This is the
> same country that built the Transcontinental
> Railroad in how long?

Less time than it takes to build almost anything
these days.

You couldn't build a transcontinential railroad today.

iliketrains Wrote:
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> You couldn't build a transcontinential railroad
> today.

That's for sure. Environmental rules, due process to take land, informed and aggressive opponents.

Not like the old days. Government gave you free land, and sent the cavalry out to clear / kill any pesky indigenous people who happened to be in your way.