However, there are legal and logistical questions about whether those fees, which could range from $660 million to $3 billion in the first year of the cap-and-trade program, could be used to build a high-speed rail line.
The revised high-speed rail proposal released Monday puts the cost of a San Francisco-to-Anaheim system at $68.4 billion and targets completion of a 520-mile network stretching from the San Francisco Bay area to Burbank by 2028.
The plan calls for merging the high-speed network with existing commuter rail lines in the Los Angeles region and San Francisco area, which will benefit from at least $1 billion in improvements.
The latest proposal refers repeatedly to the possibility of tapping money from California's new cap-and-trade program. That plan, which is set to begin in November, requires companies to buy permits from the state to offset their annual greenhouse gas emissions. It was part of California's landmark 2006 global warming law, which aims to reduce those emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Companies that are able to meet their emission limits — the cap — can sell credits to companies that cannot. Numerous experts have said the money funneled to the state as fees must be used to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
High-speed rail officials say they would only seek to use the cap-and-trade money if other funding sources come up short. So far, California has secured $3.5 billion in federal money and $9 billion in construction bonds approved by voters in 2008, which lawmakers must approve selling.
That leaves the project $55 billion short even if it comes in on budget. Republicans in Congress have signaled their desire to end all future funding for high-speed rail, private investors have yet to step forward publicly and it's unlikely California voters will approve additional borrowing for the project. Read the full report here.
Source: Don Thompson, Associated Press, The Republic, Sacramento, California.
