Cap-and-trade vote gives new life to California high speed rail

POSTED July 19, 2017

California high speed rail will not die.

By extending the cap-and-trade Monday night by a decade until 2030, the legislature essentially assured that the high speed rail project will not collapse. That’s because the only source of steady money for high speed rail construction is from the auction of credits in the greenhouse bartering system of trading money for the ability to pollute. If that went away in 2020, the odds of the high speed rail effort being derailed were greater than Michael Phelps losing a much ballyhooed race against a Great White Shark during Shark Week starting next week on the Discovery Channel.

What state and federal funds the project snagged was rapidly being depleted. The stampede of private sector investors that supporters in the 2008 election said would be overrunning California to deliver billions of dollars for high speed rail hasn’t generated even a plug nickel.

Monday’s vote was critical to make sure high speed rail has a shot at funding from the cap-and-trade credit auctions to complete the Bakersfield to San Jose/San Francisco segment. The initial 29-mile segment from a point near Madera to a point south of Fresno is now moving forward to construction.
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More here: http://www.mantecabulletin.com/section/38/article/145203/