{"id":563076,"date":"2021-06-14T10:51:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T14:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=563076"},"modified":"2021-06-14T10:51:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T14:51:54","slug":"biden-administration-doubling-down-on-costly-bullet-train-to-nowhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-doubling-down-on-costly-bullet-train-to-nowhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Administration Doubling Down On Costly Bullet Train To Nowhere"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-administration-doubling-down-on-costly-bullet-train-to-nowhere%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=563076&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1227993094.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>President Joe Biden\u2019s administration announced last week that it had restored a $929 million grant for a high-speed rail project in California that has been marred by environmental lawsuits, delays, and cost overruns.<\/p>\n<p>The money restored by the Biden administration was canceled by his predecessor, President Donald Trump, who pointed out that the project was a \u201cdisaster\u201d due to the delays and ballooning costs. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/opinion\/editorials\/editorial-biden-jumps-aboard-california-rail-debacle-2376663\/\">an editorial<\/a>, the Las Vegas Review-Journal compared the high-speed rail project to Boston\u2019s Big Dig, a notoriously expensive boondoggle that took 25 years to complete at a cost of $22 billion, when it was originally proposed to taxpayers as taking 15 years to complete and costing just $2.8 billion in 1982.<\/p>\n<p>California, the editorial board wrote, appears to be attempting to out-do Boston\u2019s boondoggle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the early aughts, the state\u2019s political class bamboozled voters into approving a high-speed rail project intended to ultimately connect Los Angeles with San Francisco. Construction was supposed to be completed early this decade, and residents were assured that the shiny new \u2018clean energy\u2019 train could be theirs for the low, low price of $30 billion,\u201d the editorial board wrote. \u201cInstead, the project is more than a decade behind schedule and is now projected to cost $100 billion \u2026 and counting. Officials now hope they can complete a 171-mile stretch between Bakersfield and Merced by the end of the decade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The editorial board pointed out that Trump\u2019s Transportation Secretary, Elaine Chao, called the high-speed rail project a \u201cbait-and-switch\u201d for taxpayers, as initial cost estimates, according to the editorial, \u201cwere proven to be a fantasy\u201d and ridership projections were \u201cnot based on reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Joe Biden might as well have held a Rose Garden photo-op while chin-flicking taxpayers and taking a blowtorch to a $1 billion pile of cash,\u201d the editorial board wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) praised the Biden administration\u2019s restoration of the grant for the high-speed rail project, even though he admitted in 2019 that the original goals of the project \u201cwould cost too much and take too long.\u201d Back then, Newsom decided to shrink the project to the track between Bakersfield and Merced.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2019, when Trump pulled the $929 million grant for the project, the Federal Railroad Administration released a statement saying California\u2019s rail authority \u201crepeatedly failed to comply with the terms of the FY10 agreement and has failed to make reasonable progress on the project. Additionally, California has abandoned its original vision of a high-speed passenger rail service connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, which was essential to its applications for FRA grant funding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the project\u2019s more than 10-year life so far, it has been sued multiple times by <em>environmentalists<\/em> for harming wildlife along the proposed route. The Associated Press <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pressdemocrat.com\/article\/news\/high-speed-rail-authority-settles-suit-in-central-valley\/\">reported<\/a> in 2018 that the city of Shafter, California, received a settlement from California\u2019s high-speed rail authority for allegedly violating the California Environmental Quality Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt brings an end to one of seven environmental lawsuits filed against the ambitious project to build a high-speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles. One is still pending,\u201d the AP reported at the time.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Joe Biden\u2019s administration announced last week that it had restored a $929 million grant for a high-speed rail project in California that has been marred by environmental lawsuits, delays, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2280195,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1227993094.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Biden Administration Doubling Down On Costly Bullet Train To Nowhere","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-563076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1227993094.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Biden Administration Doubling Down On Costly Bullet Train To Nowhere","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}