California’s Newsom Says State Needs Infrastructure Boom Bigger Than Any in Decades
- Governor pitches limits to lawsuits, red-tape slowing projects
- State to invest $180 billion on transport, water, clean energy
California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled legislation Friday to speed up construction of power lines, water works, bridges and other big infrastructure projects in a place notorious for delays, saying the state needed a building boom larger than any since the 1960s.
At the construction site of a solar power plant in Stanislaus County, Newsom said California was poised to invest as much as $180 billion in new infrastructure over the next decade, as it overhauls its aging water and transportation systems and shifts to clean energy. Permitting delays, many of them tied to environmental studies and voluminous paperwork, threaten that drive, he said.