Officials broke ground Monday on a new high-speed rail system that will connect Southern California and Las Vegas. The Brightline West system will average speeds of about 115 miles per hour and reach a top speed of around 200...more
Developers aim to add 29.1 GW of solar generating capacity to the U.S. grid in 2023, accounting for 54% of planned new capacity for the year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced Monday....more
California legislators have passed a 2022–23 spending proposal. This year’s budget measure, Senate Bill 154, totals over 1,000 pages. The Senate voted 28 to 8 to send the budget to Governor Newsom. The final Assembly vote was...more
Judge rejects lawsuit over California housing density bill (SB 10) Bullet Courthouse News Service – May 12 Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant held last week that the California Legislature has the...more
On 20 May 2021, the government published its white paper for the railways in Britain after an 18-month delay due to the pandemic - ‘Great British Railways: The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail’ (the Plan). The government...more
ANTITRUST and COMPETITION - German Court asks ECJ About Review of Rail Station Fees - The Berlin Higher Regional Court has lodged a request for a preliminary ruling with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) concerning railway...more
Berkeley considers ending single-family zoning - The Mercury News – February 12 - Berkeley was the first city in the nation to introduce “exclusionary zoning” in the early 1900s, and now it could be one of the first...more
California voters reject measure to expand rent control - Bullet SFGate – November 4 - Voters on Tuesday soundly rejected a ballot measure that would have let California cities expand rent control in a state where...more
California bill would allow a duplex on most single-family parcels - Los Angeles Times – August 26 - The California Assembly is considering a bill, authored by state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego),...more
The recent High Court judgement in R (Packham) v Secretary of State for Transport revisits old arguments about the requirements for ‘promptness’ for judicial review claims. With the Government’s renewed focus and commitment...more
Better Buildings Initiative partners save $11B In energy costs - Bullet Facility Executive – June 9 - The more than 950 public and private sector organizations participating in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better...more
In his 2020 State of the State Address on January 8, Governor Andrew Cuomo outlined a “robust agenda” that ranged from investing heavily to combat climate change by developing New York state’s Green Economy to creating a...more
I believe this nation should commit itself to the goal - It cannot have escaped your attention that it was the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing last month. That historic achievement was the ultimate validation...more
Focus - Four automakers reach deal with California to increase fuel efficiency standards - The Washington Post – July 25 - Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, and BMW - major automakers with a combined 30 percent of the U.S....more
Over the last half century, urban centers have been combating the blessing and curse that is the automobile and freeway system. While historically providing means and opportunity for people to move themselves at high rates of...more
Focus - San Jose City Council approves taller buildings - The Mercury News - March 12 - After more than a decade of debate over how tall buildings in the nation’s 10th largest city should stand, San Jose’s notoriously...more
Senate passes sweeping land conservation bill - New York Times - February 12 - The Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping public lands conservation bill, designating more than one million acres of wilderness for...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (“Court of Appeals”) addressed in an August 6 opinion whether certain activities involving wood pellets qualified as “transportation by rail carrier” under the...more
On April 30, 2018, the United States Supreme Court denied the petition for writ of certiorari filed in North Coast Railroad Authority v. Friends of the Eel River, U.S. Supreme Ct. Case No. 17-915, which presented this issue: ...more
Reversing a district court decision that had delayed work on the $2.4 billion Purple Line light rail transit project in Maryland, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has held that the Federal...more
In what will be the first project of its kind in South East Asia, the governments of Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to collaborate on a high-speed rail project connecting the two nations' capital cities. The bidding...more
Focus - High-speed rail authority says environmental reviews won't be completed until 2020 - Los Angeles Times - Nov 15 The California High-Speed Rail Authority announced Tuesday evening that it would not meet its...more
As physical signs of California’s $64 billion railroad project come into focus across the State, a potential faceoff with the federal government regarding its jurisdiction over state environmental laws, at least with regard...more
In July 2017, the California Supreme Court determined the federal Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995 (49 U.S.C. § 10101 et seq.) (“ICCTA”) does not preempt the application of the California Environmental...more
The California Supreme Court has issued its decision in Friends of the Eel River v. North Coast Railroad, an important case regarding preemption of state environmental law by the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act...more