In other
California
rail news today, Gov. Jerry Brown has backed off his plan to
try to
block environmental lawsuits against the state’s proposed
high-speed rail project. Via the
San Jose Mercury News:

The Brown administration on Wednesday abandoned its plan to ease
environmental scrutiny of the $69 billion bullet train, backing off
quickly after strong opposition from environmentalists threatened
the project altogether.

The proposal was designed to prevent opponents from halting
high-speed rail construction in court on environmental grounds. It
was tied to a key vote in the Legislature in coming weeks on
whether to build the first $6 billion leg of tracks in the Central
Valley.

But powerful environmental groups — and key bullet train
supporters — like the Sierra Club and National Resources Defense
Council were outraged at what they considered an attempt to
undermine the state’s landmark environmental law. They spent the
last three weeks urging lawmakers to scrap the plan, saying it
would set a dangerous precedent.

California is operating on a
tight deadline to get started with the project or risk losing
$3.5 billion in matching federal stimulus funds. The State Senate
has set a July 1 deadline to appropriate $2.6 billion in bonds to
start construction on the first leg in central California.
Environmental lawsuits against projects in California can take
months or years to conclude. On this basis, Conn Carroll of The
Washington Examiner is declaring the project
dead:

[A]ccording to the stimulus law, California must begin
construction on the project before December 31, 2012 or they will
not be eligible for any more high speed rail stimulus dollars.
Obama’s Transportation Department reaffirmed this time limit last
year when they admitted they had “no administrative authority to
change this deadline.”

When I read that Brown was dropping his efforts to block
environmental suits this morning, I had the same initial thought:
There’s no way this train will begin construction this year. But
there are a number of possibilities that could keep this boondoggle
from the chopping block.

First, it’s important not to make the assumption that the people
who are suing to block the project are actually suing to actually
block the project. A lot of them are likely looking to be paid to
go away or to make sure they get a better sum than an eminent
domain process might land them or because they’re close to the
tracks but not close enough to sell their land and want
compensation for any hardships the trains cause or for any number
of reasons. There could be all sorts of quick settlements of these
cases by throwing money at the problem or agreeing to land
set-asides elsewhere.

Second, don’t underestimate the government’s ability to ignore
or alter deadlines, or find other sources for the money. I mean,
look at how the Obama administration has been behaving. Just
because they don’t have the authority to change the deadline
doesn’t mean they won’t do it anyway. And even if they don’t, and
California misses the deadline, there’s all sorts of tricks they
can resort to. The Federal Railroad Administration has a $35 billion loan
guarantee program which states:

Eligible borrowers include railroads, state and local
governments, government-sponsored authorities and corporations,
joint ventures that include at least one railroad, and limited
option freight shippers who intend to construct a new rail
connection.

As much as I would like to cackle at the bullet train’s demise,
it’s still too soon to say. I’ll believe it when I see the bloated
blue-and-gold monster’s corpse on a pike during season three of
Game of Thrones.