Democrats in California and D.C. clash over how state's high-speed rail should be powered Ralph Vartabedian A key block of California lawmakers is feuding with the Biden administration over the state's high-speed rail endeavor, arguing that conditions of a restored federal grant lock the project into what it sees as an outdated technology for powering the bullet train. In a recent letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Speaker Anthony Rendon and 17 other Assembly Democrats say the federal grant unnecessarily directs California to use overhead electrical lines to propel the trains down their tracks. Instead, Rendon wants California to keep open the option of powering locomotives with batteries or fuel cells, arguing that the switch could help the state avoid the high cost of installing overhead lines, a system used worldwide since the 1960s.