TO: The California Air Resources Board
From: Cherylyn Smith
RE: New Concerns About Funding High Speed Rail with Cap & Trade Revenues
Date: August 14, 2015

Concern #1:
I have previously submitted a comment on June 28, 2015, called “Open Letter to the ARB”. It relates my three major objections to High Speed Rail (HSR) being funded by Cap and Trade revenues. Of all the issues presented in that letter, the High Speed Rail Authority’s (HSRA’s) ongoing effort to be released from CEQA is the most troubling. Having reviewed the AB 32 document and its revisions, I am struck by its reliance on CEQA as a guiding principle. To allow Cap and Trade to continue funding an agency that seeks CEQA exemption, positions the ARB in direct violation of AB 32. In fact, your own agency, the ARB, is defined as carrying out “California environmental laws” as part of CalEPA. It is illogical, in fact illegal, to fund HSR until HSRA’s determination to avoid CEQA regulation ceases and until it recognizes its responsibility to remain in full compliance with CEQA.
Furthermore, if CEQA is removed as a regulatory document, then only NEPA would remain in effect, and EPA would be the predominant agency overseeing environmental regulations pertaining to HSR. Recent tragic events in Colorado are indicative of what happens when an agency such as EPA, which is spread thinly across all the states, super-cedes a state agency. EPA simply does not have the focus that a state agency has on environmental matters within its own territory. Moreover, it is widely recognized that NEPA is less specific and less rigorously enforced than CEQA. As it stands today, the CalEPA and the EPA are expected to work cooperatively to regulate the HSR project.

Resolution #1:
It is the ARB’s responsibility to withhold C&T funding until the issue of HSRA’s need to comply with CEQA is resolved. 

Concern#2:
Another concern, that ARB should recognize, is the proximity of HSR tracks to freight lines. It is imperative that the board work with appropriate federal and state agencies to determine an acceptable distance between freight and HSR tracks. Toxic freight passes through the Central Valley on a daily basis. The HSR poses some formidable problems in that speeds of up to 220 miles per hour cause turbulence and other conditions that could derail a passing train, especially by toppling empty passing freight cars. Because twelve HSR trains per hour will pass through the valley, often in very close proximity to freight lines, the probability of an accident is greatly increased. In addition, the 2011 HSR accident in China illustrates the threat inherent in viaducts passing over other train lines. These problems have been raised, yet they have not been addressed in a timely manner.
Furthermore, The ARB has an obligation to disadvantaged communities. Because so many of those communities are located near existing freight lines, they will be placed at significantly greater risk than most other communities.  It is incumbent upon the ARB to consult with such agencies as FRA and CPUC, for example, to determine the probability of a catastrophic accident and to reevaluate the distance between HSR and freight lines.   

Resolution #2:
To minimize the risk of a toxic accident in order to insure public safety and uphold environmental equity, the ARB has an obligation to withhold Cap and Trade funding of High Speed Rail until the issue of safe distancing between freight and HSR lines is examined and resolved.  

In my previous letter, I stated that HSR would not reduce greenhouse gasses and that it already has de-incentivized big polluters in their efforts to reduce GHG’s. Combined with the concerns stated here, these arguments compel the ARB to act immediately to halt the issuance of Cap and Trade revenues to High Speed Rail. 

Sincerely,
Cherylyn Smith