Boondoggles
The Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy announced this week that the government was cancelling federal funds for the boondoggle known as the California High-Speed Rail project. A boondoggle is a wasteful and impractical project, often involving public funds, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations. It’s about time.
In 2008, the citizens of California bought into the concept of a high-speed rail connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles, eventually growing to an 800-mile network that would include lines to Sacramento and San Diego. The estimated cost was $33 billion, funded initially by bonds. Barack Obama hailed the promise of high-speed rail, and Democrats eagerly approved billions of dollars of funds for the project as part of his economic stimulus program in 2009.
After 17 years of construction, not one foot of track has been laid. California Governor Gavin Hairgel has agreed to limit the line to between Bakersfield and Merced. This dunce apparently thinks there will be a huge demand to ride a fast train between these two “metropolitan” areas. Any Californian with an IQ higher than a boxcar knows this is complete folly, and should be thankful that Secretary Duffy’s decision to cut off funding was an act of fiscal mercy.
This railroad to nowhere is not an orphan when it comes to government inspired or managed boondoggles. There are others that Americans need to be reminded of…in case they forgot or get all their news from PBS or NPR.
On the California Nevada border, just north of Interstate 15 is the Ivanpah Solar Power generating plant. By using mirrors aimed at boilers that create steam to power generators, a “clean energy” miracle was created. It began operations in early 2014 to widescale praise from all the tree hugging, left-wing environmentalists and ideologues opposed to fossil fuels.
The result has been huge costs, huge subsidies, huge environmental damage, and a lot of equivocating justifications. It has never once achieved its advertised electricity production goals. What a brilliant idea concocted by the bugs and bunny crowd.
Ivanpah has served to demonstrate the ugly truth of modern environmentalism. Never mind that it has done great harm to the home of many native species including the Desert Tortoise. It has also killed thousands of birds who chase insects in the path of the mirrors, only to be instantly vaporized. Windmill farms rival this boondoggle as a major killer of birds as well.
Then there’s the Boston Big Dig, officially known as the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. The project was initially estimated to cost $2.56 billion and be completed by 1998 but never made that deadline. It was finally completed in 2007 and cost an estimated $24.3 billion. This figure includes all costs associated with the project, which involved replacing the elevated Central Artery with an underground highway and building a new tunnel under Boston Harbor.
However, the project faced significant cost overruns due to various factors, including inflation, unforeseen subsurface conditions, and environmental issues thus making it one of the most expensive highway projects in U.S. history.
In 1986 President Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
That statement more than anything sums up what a disaster it is to have the government manage a construction project. Time and time again the private sector, without inference from some well-meaning but know nothing government bureaucrat, gets the job done.
A worthy goal is for all public work projects that are “boondoggle” free.