by NICK POPE at dailycaller.com
The state of California has spent more than $600 million on environmental reviews for a high-speed rail project that has not yet been completed, according to documents obtained and reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The state shelled out a total of $618,038,924.01 for numerous companies involved in construction to conduct environmental reviews for the state’s high-speed railway project, the records show. California voters approved the funding of the undertaking to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco and the Central Valley with high-speed rail in 2008, but it has encountered delays and budget overruns in the 15 years since California voters initially approved issuing bonds to finance the project.“
With the amount of regulatory paralysis the project confronts, it’s no surprise that almost nothing has been accomplished in over 15 years since voters approved it,” Edward Ring, senior fellow for the California Policy Center, told the DCNF. “The state owes it to the taxpayers to either dramatically streamline the process or cut their losses and cancel the project” because “at the current rate, the project will not be completed in our lifetimes,” Ring continued.
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