Lame-Duck Obama Admin Rejects CA High-Speed Rail $15 Billion Loan

Is it possible that Barack Obama is going to save the State of California from bankruptcy?  His Administration has turned down the Jerry Brown fantasy of a slow speed train from L.A. to San Fran, at a real cost of close to $200 billion.  Already hundreds of people in the Fresno area have lost their businesses and home to this scam.  The High Speed Rail Authority owes $3.2 billion to the Federal government.  It is my hope the Trump Administration demands the money to be returned.

As of today, expect for a few dozen million of dollars from the cap and trade scam and tax, the choo choo to nowhere, has no money for the billions in contracts it has signed.  Watch for the lawsuits, based on fraud—they knew they did not have the money to finance the agreements.  Close to forty years ago Los Angeles threw hundreds of people out of their homes to build the 710 freeway in East Los Angeles.  Last week, after all these years, CalTrans finally agreed to sell these bought and abandoned houses owned by the State of California.  The same fate awaits the businesses and homes in Fresno—by 2050 the homes might be returned to the owners.

“So the state set up a meeting to ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to publicly announce a federal loan of up to $15 billion that would help build an initial rail segment from San Jose to Shafter, northwest of Bakersfield, which would cement federal support during the transition to a new presidential administration.

Such a loan — even the commitment for one — would also show potential private investors that the project was “creditworthy,” according to a briefing document for the meeting.

But federal officials did not go along with the state’s suggestion. “At this time, California has not submitted a financing request,” said Clark Pettig, press secretary for the Transportation Department.

The failure of the last-ditch effort leaves the project’s future in doubt.”

In fifteen years not a single private investor has put a dime into this scam.  Now even the Feds have said no.  Can we now end this farce?

Lame-Duck Obama Admin Rejects CA High-Speed Rail $15 Billion Loan

by Joel B. Pollak, Breitbart California,  12/26/16

The California High-Speed Rail Authority came up empty when it asked the outgoing administration of President Barack Obama for a $15 billion loan, the Los Angeles Times reports.

State officials feared that with Republican Donald J. Trump taking office — somewhat unexpectedly — in January, and perhaps cutting off funding to the struggling project, which has never had a clear idea of how it would be financed, they would appeal to the Obama administration for a financial break.

The Times notes:

With the Obama administration on its way out, it seemed like a good time to nail down more long-term federal support on the assumption that Hillary Clinton would be the next president.

So the state set up a meeting to ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to publicly announce a federal loan of up to $15 billion that would help build an initial rail segment from San Jose to Shafter, northwest of Bakersfield, which would cement federal support during the transition to a new presidential administration.

Such a loan — even the commitment for one — would also show potential private investors that the project was “creditworthy,” according to a briefing document for the meeting.

But federal officials did not go along with the state’s suggestion. “At this time, California has not submitted a financing request,” said Clark Pettig, press secretary for the Transportation Department.

The failure of the last-ditch effort leaves the project’s future in doubt.

Ironically, the Trump transition team has been talking about making large capital investments in infrastructure, to the tune of some $1 trillion nationwide.

However, the incoming Trump administration plans to use private capital where possible — something California’s high-speed rail had trouble attracting. And it intends to aim investment where it would actually be economically feasible.

For high-speed rail in California, that might mean a train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas — not from the Bay Area to L.A.

At any rate, with Trump’s victory, the proposal so beloved by Gov. Jerry Brown — touted as something of an answer to climate change, rather than a giant “green elephant” — looks to be a rail to nowhere.