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"Tens of thousands" of fully autonomous tractor-trailers are expected to haul freight on public roads in upcoming years.
The post βTens of Thousandsβ of Driverless Trucks to Haul Freight on Highways in Coming Years appeared first on Breitbart.
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Democratic officials are throwing billions at California high-speed rail projects that have yet to be built, funding thousands of jobs specifically for union members.
Despite funding initially being approved by a referendum in 2008, the California High-Speed Rail project currently has less than a quarter of its expected length under construction and was initially supposed to have connected Los Angeles and San Francisco by 2020,Β accordingΒ to the Los Angeles Times.
The Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents 48 local unions and more than 150,000 members in California,Β boastedΒ of the creation of 13,000 unionized construction jobs due to continued funding of Californiaβs high-speed rail project.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority, in its community benefitsΒ agreementΒ regarding the construction of the rail, lays out that it will exclusively bargain with union representatives for craft labor and that no employee will be required to join a union, but workers who are at the site for more than eight total days will be required to pay union dues.
The agreement outlines that union members will be the primary source of labor and that the local unions will be given the opportunity to refer employees for the job.
βThe project has been a windfall for the union workers whoβve been on the job,β Kerry Jackson, William Clement fellow in California Reform at the Pacific Research Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. βBy some counts, as many as 13,000 have been hired. The California High-Speed Rail Authority itself even brags about the βsteady union jobs that provide union wages and benefitsβ they get. Thatβs not to mention the benefits the union bosses everywhere always enjoy when they have more dues-paying members supporting their salaries and perks.β
The Biden administrationΒ announcedΒ $3 billion in federal funds for the project in December to push along the first phase of the project connecting Merced, Fresno, and Bakersfield, adding to the $9 billion already appropriated by the state and the approximately $3.5 billion in grants given by the Obama administration.
The project has been estimated to need between $88 billion and $128 billion to be fully completed, and the rail authority told the Daily Caller News Foundation that it is aiming to be operational from Bakersfield to Merced between 2030 and 2033.
βOf course, project costs are affected by higher, nonmarket wages,β Jackson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. βWhen you have so many workers making these wages over the years, it adds up. The unions are a force behind the rail and one of the reasons, if not the main one, that this project has not been halted even though itβs far behind schedule, way over initial cost projections, and looks like a failed enterprise.
βThe community benefits agreement that serves as the Project Labor Agreement requires unions to be the primary source of all craft labor.β
The California High-Speed Rail Authority told the Daily Caller News Foundation that, so far, 22.5 miles in the Central Valley have reached substantial completion, but that efforts are underway to design stations and track systems, complete environmental reviews and procure trains.
βThe project is very much happening and continuing to make progress with our commitment unwavering as we remain active and aggressive in moving the project forward while actively pursuing federal funding,β the authority told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Big News: Today, President Biden announced funding to build the first high-speed rail projects in our nationβs history.
β The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 9, 2023
These investments will get people and goods where they need to go more quickly, reduce emissions, increase passenger safety, and create good-paying union jobs. pic.twitter.com/zxR6SQawIw
βEven if we didnβt have the Project Labor Agreement, there would be prevailing wage and benefits on this project, both because of state requirements and federal funding requirements,β Anne-Marie Otey, communications and editorial director at the LA/OC Building and Construction Trades Council, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. βSo, theyβd be there no matter what, so we might as well make the best of it. I think it is better for the workers when thereβs also a union agreement on the project.β
Otey pointed to the Davis-Bacon Act, which is a federalΒ lawΒ that requires the government to pay at least the local rate to workers when constructing public projects, as the reason why using union workers on the project would not raise labor costs.
The Congressional Budget OfficeΒ estimatedΒ that if the Davis-Bacon Act were repealed in 2020, it would have reduced government spending outlays by $10.7 billion by 2030.
βItβs benefiting workers,β Otey told the Daily Caller News Foundation. βAnd these workers are represented by unions, but no, we didnβt look at it as βWhat can we do for unions?β We said, βWhat can we do for workers in the state?β Especially again, in areas like the Central Valley, where they canβt just drive to San Francisco, Sacramento or L.A. for jobs, they live in the great heartland of our state.
βSo, we wanted to figure out a way to keep them employed and keep them working at least somewhat near where they live. So, we think itβs a positive.β
Around $3 billion in federal funding was also announced in December for a high-speed railway between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Rancho Cucamonga, California, with Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.,Β claimingΒ that 35,000 union jobs would be created as a result. TheΒ fundingΒ for the project comes from the $1.2 trillion in new spending that was approved by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021.
βWe disagree that the California high-speed rail project has yet to make substantial progress,βΒ a spokesperson for the California State Transportation Agency told the Daily Caller News Foundation.Β βQuite the contrary. There are 119 miles currently under construction, with one construction package already substantially complete, and preconstruction work is underway to complete the initial 171-mile operating segment between Merced and Bakersfield. The nationβs first high-speed trains will be tested by the end of the decade, and we expect service to begin between 2030 and 2033.β
California is one of the more unionized states in the U.S., ranking sixth in terms of the share of workers in unions, exceeded only by five other blue states (Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and Washington),Β accordingΒ to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The share of California workers who were members of unions declined from 16.1% in 2022 to 15.4% in 2023.
The Biden administrationβs push for high-speed rail funding in California is part of a larger national push for increased passenger rail access for Americans. President Joe BidenΒ announcedΒ in November that $16.4 billion would be given to Amtrak, the national passenger railroad of the U.S., to fund 25 passenger rail projects along the East Coast.
βAlthough in California, public works projects are always union labor, so I think their biggest reason they like high-speed rail is that itβs just such a long-term project,β Edward Ring, director of water and energy policy at the California Policy Center, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. βThe unions get behind these projects because theyβre big. The other reason, though, that they get behind these projects is because these are projects that the environmentalist community wonβt vehemently oppose. They ought to be building things that are more practical; they ought to be upgrading freeways. But the environmentalists want us on a road diet.β
Biden has also boasted of new train sets for the California rail project being all-electric, resulting in zero emissions and powered through renewable energy,Β accordingΒ to a White House fact sheet.
The president claims that all of his proposed rail projects will create βtens of thousandsβ of union jobs. As of September, the state of California hadΒ spentΒ more than $600 million on environmental reviews for the rail project, not including a 78-mile stretch out of 500 miles that had not yet been evaluated.
βThe environmentalists are so powerful that the unions go, βWell, if weβre going to get our guys working, weβre going to have to play ball with the environmentalists,ββ Ring told the Daily Caller News Foundation. βAnd so, the environmentalists will buy off on projects that really have no practical value. High-speed rail has no practical value in California. You could also argue that it has no environmental value, and I think you could argue that very convincingly.β
The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation
The post Californiaβs High-Speed Rail Project Far From Finished, but It Is Putting Money in Unionsβ Coffers appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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A Southwest Airlines flight is under investigation after it nearly hit LaGuardia Airport's air traffic control tower during inclement weather.
The post VIDEO β βGo Around!β: Southwest Flight Under Investigation After Nearly Hitting LaGuardia Tower appeared first on Breitbart.
Everett Dirksen, the Republican Senate leader back in the 1960s, is famous for saying, βA billion here and a billion there and pretty soon youβre talking about real money. . .β
That was in the days before multi-trillion dollar deficits. A billion dollars is hardly a rounding error in a federal program these days, and $1 billion is usually considered the entry fee for any proposed new program. A program that only costs $750 million is almost an insult at this point.
And Dirksen also never could have anticipated the utility of high speed-rail spending. If he was alive today, heβd likely modify his statement as follows: βA hundred billion here, a hundred billion there, and maybe someday youβll have a high-speed rail line in California.β
To no oneβs surprise, this is in the βnewsβ this week:
As the state faces economic headwinds, Californiaβs mega high-speed rail project between San Francisco to Los Angeles also faces major funding hurdles, the projectβs CEO Brian Kelly told state lawmakers Tuesday.
Kelly testified in front of the State Senateβs Transportation Committee on the High-Speed Rail Authorityβs updated draft business plan. In Tuesdayβs hearing, Kelly told lawmakers the project has $28 billion dollars on hand, but noted it was still a few billion dollars short to complete the Central Valley segment between Merced and Bakersfield. Depending on how long the segment takes to finish, it could cost between $32 Billion to $35 Billion. Kelly said the project is hoping to fill the gap with federal funds. That segment of the project is expected to be fully operational between 2030 and 2033, Kelly said.
Project leaders estimate it will still need an additional $100 billion to finish what voters were originally pitched in 2008: a bullet train that runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. A timeline on its completion has not been set as the authority waits for environmental clearances for those segments.
Bold emphasis added. Because everyone knows federal money is free, or grows on trees or something. But with a state deficit now likely to be over $70 billion this year, thereβs little chance California can pay for the completion of the rail line itself. And thereβs no timeline set because everyone with a brain understand the high speed rail line will never be fully completed. The βenvironmental clearancesβ make that certain.
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