[u02sgb]

Finding a way to avoid red tape seems like a massive cost and time saving.

I remember seeing something similar with The Boring Company. Avoiding red tape by getting the city to agree the depth was great enough to not need look into environmental impact.

[wahern]

What's costly in California isn't the EIR, but the subsequent lawsuits. Boring Company got an exemption in Hawthorne because they were tunneling under a relatively poor neighborhood and nobody showed up at the public hearings to challenge the exemption. Poor people have neither the expertise, resources, nor inclination to game the system, at least not unless there's a local community activist.

But rich people do, and that's what happened with the Dodger Stadium project: NIMBYs arrived and the city immediately caved. So now Boring Company is doing the EIR. But, again, EIRs are easy. It's exceptional that something major is found, like an endangered species; usually it's simple, basic stuff; the kind of stuff originally intended to be remediated with the reports. There's a whole industry of professionals that come out, run tests, and write it up with little friction. But under California's CEQA, NIMBYs can challenge it endlessly in the courts without repercussions. It's a complete absurdity and has nothing to do with environmental impacts. But the law can't be changed because the rich and powerful know full well that its function is to permit neighborhoods and special interests to block projects, and they won't give that up.

Boring Company will never get an exemption where an exemption would truly matter.

[tachyonbeam]

> Boring Company will never get an exemption where an exemption would truly matter.

If California wants to prevent growth and keep repeatedly shooting itself in the foot for decades to come, it's a choice. It makes that market less competitive. People seem to imagine that silicon valley will remain the dominant tech hub of the world forever, but that could change. Maybe, eventually, it's California that won't matter anymore.

[ptyyy]

> Maybe, eventually, it's California that won't matter anymore.

California's economy is the fifth-largest in the world. It's a whole lot more than a tech hub.

[paulryanrogers]

> Finding a way to avoid red tape seems like a massive cost and time saving.

No doubt! Just ask Boeing. Except don't get caught avoiding the ones that keep people alive and healthy.