The NCRA has had its day in state court and lost every time. I suppose
they'll attempt to shift this to federal court under a jurisdiction argument.
Will it work? Because this is about a track repair project funded with
state dollars, the state can impose any environmental requirements it wants
to, so it seems doubtful that the NCRA will get the feds to overrule state
courts.

What about the EIR associated with track operations that the NCRA is currently
doing? This is the one where the NCRA could conceivably make the argument
that since there is no state funding involved (is this true?), the state has
no jurisdiction over the environmental requirements. The interesting thing is
that NCRA has made no such case and are preparing an EIR associated with
freight operations south of Willits. Go figure.

Mike didn't comment on the other issues in the Novato waiting to be heard
by Judge Ritchie. If the operating lease agreement with NWP Co. is invalidated
the rail agency is going to have a heck of time moving forward. Same goes
for the loan agreement.