California cronyism is enforced by the CEQA. If your project doesn't buy off the right people, then they will ruin it with interminable environmental-impact law

California cronyism is enforced by the CEQA. If your project doesn't buy off the right people, then they will ruin it with interminable environmental-impact lawsuits, a problem largely orthogonal to any mitigation of environmental impact. There's also a measure of incompetence, like the story the LA Times had about the high speed rail planners who asked the Central Valley farmers if they could just put their grown nut trees into pots for a few years while the rail line is being constructed. And, of course, all the financial estimates were laughably optimistic from project inception.