Trump Administration Launches Review Of High Speed Rail Project

Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, February 21, 2025…

• California’s long-delayed and over budget high-speed rail project is under threat again by the Trump administration. During his first term in office, Trump tried, without success, to claw back nearly a billion dollars in federal aid for the project, which one day is supposed to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now this second Trump Administration is launching an investigation into high speed rail. That could jeopardize $4 billion in funds that the feds have committed for constructing the project’s first segment in the Central Valley.
• Lawmakers at the state capitol are rolling out proposals to lower Californians’ electricity bills, including by taking aim at the rate-increases from investor owned utilities like PG&E and Southern California Edison. But saving money for some ratepayers may come at the expense of other Californians. 
• The Los Angeles fires have renewed concerns about how well prepared California is to support older people and people who have disabilities during natural disasters.

Trump Administration To Review California High-Speed Rail Project

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will launch a review of the multi-billion-dollar California high speed rail project, which federal authorities have said is over budget and has been mismanaged.

So far, more than $13 billion in state and federal funding has been spent on the planned railway. The review would focus on $4 billion in unspent federal funds, much of which was granted for the project during the last presidential administration.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference in Los Angeles that the federal government wants to assess whether the project is worthy of the investment. “We can’t just say we’re going to give money and not hold states accountable to how they spend that money,” Duffy said.

State authorities defended the project, saying every dollar spent on the project is accounted for. “We stand by the progress and impact of this project,” said Ian Choudri, chief executive of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, in a statement.

California Lawmakers Aim To Lower Electricity Bills, But They’ll Face Tough Choices

State lawmakers are rolling out legislation to curb energy prices in California, hoping to ease the pain of residents who are paying the second-highest electricity rates in the nation.

Some of the new proposals take aim at the state’s investor-owned utilities, such as PG&E and Southern California Edison, by seeking to blunt rate increases.

However, state regulators and industry analysts said lawmakers might have to make tough choices to reduce costs for consumers — such as ending energy-saving subsidies for some residents and paying for more utility costs out of the state budget.

Democratic leaders in the Legislature made lowering utility bills a top priority following the November election when broad frustrations with prices fueled Republican gains. But that task has been complicated by climate change: Increases in electricity rates have been driven in large part by utility spending to prevent increasingly intense wildfires and also by the state’s push to decarbonize its energy sector.

Is California Fully Prepared To Help Disabled People During Fires?

The wildfires that ravaged two Southern California communities last month served as another reminder of the threat that natural disasters pose for people with disabilities and limited mobility as well as their caregivers, who often take on the role of first responders in these situations.

These dangers have been apparent for decades, especially since Hurricane Katrina, the most deadly natural disaster in recent U.S. history, leveled the Gulf Coast in 2005. In California, the deadly fires that struck Sonoma and Butte counties in 2017 and 2018 resurfaced these issues. A state audit from 2019 showed that historically, emergency response by state and county agencies have struggled to properly assist people with disabilities and limited mobility.

Several of the people who were killed in the most recent Southern California wildfires were disabled and the majority were over 70, news reports identifying the victims show. The stories are tragic, but not surprising, aging and disability advocates say.

“Older adults and people with disabilities are often disproportionately impacted by wildfires due to factors like mobility limitations, chronic health conditions and social isolation, and that appears to be the case again in Los Angeles,” advocates wrote in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature.  In the letter, a coalition of 126 organizations that included the AARP, Justice in Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association, asked the governor and lawmakers to prioritize disabled and older residents as the state distributes wildfire recovery funds. The request to the state is less about a specific dollar amount and more about creating a recovery process with this population in mind, said Hagar Dickman, director of long-term services and support advocacy at Justice in Aging.