We may be approaching the point of peak hubris at the High-Speed Rail Authority. They are more than $100 billion short of what they need so their latest gambit is to lease out land on “their right of way” that they took by eminent domain to AI data center operators. Talk about “mission creep” from people who can’t even get the most basic part of their mission off the ground. The SF Comicle has a couple good quips on this from Central Valley politicians whose constituents are appalled at the idea:

To pave the way for potential leases of land, fiber or electric transmission along the corridor, the rail authority has signed a co-development agreement with a consortium of infrastructure investors. They would act as a kind of intermediary for the rail line, helping match assets in the rail right-of-way with companies that would pay to use them. Within a few months CEO Ian Choudri expects to finalize a second agreement with another group of investors, this one focused on generating revenue from the solar arrays, wind farms, substations or batteries that will power the trains.

That is called “spreading it around” in some circles. But not everyone is buying the idea:

“Ian’s got big ideas,” Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto said, referring to Choudri. “He’s very plugged in with the Silicon Valley types. He’s a move-fast, visionary kind of guy, and he wants this project to pay for itself.” Serratto managed a dry laugh. “But really,” he said, “just build the train, dude.”

Questions abound, at least in my mind. How can an agency take private property by eminent domain for one purpose and then start adding other, ostensibly profitable, uses without going back and compensating the original owner? If anyone is going to get a cut it should be the ranchers and farmer in the Central Valley who have had their lives disrupted. How much land would have to be leased to even put a small dent in the $100+ billion shortfall? Are the telecom carriers and electric utilities going to sit silently while some new competitor gets handed a sweetheart deal to undercut their decades of investment? Or the ratepayers? And there is the perennial question of where the water will come from? The Comicle notes all this needs to come together pronto if Newsom is going to try to claim some sort of successful exit from this disaster on the presidential campaign trail. Peak hubris.