Ruling may affect challenge to HSR

Central Valley farmers hoping to keep the California High-Speed Rail Authority off their land may have gotten a boost from a California Supreme Court ruling.

The court ruled last week that, under federal law, state-owned rail projects cannot bypass California Environmental Quality Act requirements. The case decided by the court did not directly involve the high-speed rail project but was seen as having an effect on it.

Because of that, legal analysts saw the ruling as a boon to those hoping to use California regulations to stymie the high-speed rail project. The court overturned a lower court's ruling in a case involving freight trains on the North Coast, saying the lower court's interpretation that U.S. law trumps state law was too broad.

Foes of the project, including the Merced and Madera County Farm Bureaus, filed legal briefs supporting the contention that CHSRA should be subject to state environmental review.

Exempting the project from CEQA, the Farm Bureaus' brief said, "would allow the Authority to evade the environmental and political accountability that form the very core of CEQA's purposes."

The CHSRA said it should be subject to the same federal laws as other railroads, which are regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration.