Kings County, a San Joaquin Valley area at the center of President Obama’s California high-speed rail project, says it now wants out of the project.
Earlier this week, Kings supervisors voted unanimously to adopt a resolution saying they do not want any high-speed rail routes going through their county. “I just think it’s time we stick a fork in it and call it good,” Kings County Supervisor Joe Neves told KFSN.
The resoultion does not present any legal barrier the High Speed Rail Authority, who released a statement after the vote reaffirming their intention to run the first portion of the rail project through the county. A provision inserted into federal law at the behest of Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., requires that California’s high-speed rail project must begin in the San Joaquin Valley. But growing local opposition to the project will make it next to impossible for the project to ever break ground.
All federal projects must comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires detailed Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) on the environmental effects of proposed federal agency actions. Anyone who opposes a federal project, and can show it would somehow affect them, can sue to stop a project by claiming an EIS is inadequate. Local property owners are already planning such suits.
A recent study of Federal Highway Administration data found that once an EIS is required, it takes an average of 6.1 years for the NEPA process to finish. Such a delay would kill Obama’s high-speed rail project. All federal stimulus funds must be spent by 2017, or California must give the money back to the federal government.
