In July, Elon Musk tweeted that he received “verbal governmental approval” to build a high-speed underground tunnel enabling 29-minute trips between New York City and Washington D.C. An adviser to President Donal Trump clarified Monday that there was more “verbal government excitement” offered than go-ahead.
Reed Cordish, one of the top tech advisers to Trump told Recode:
“I think that I was the culprit. As I said to Elon after, I think what you heard was ‘verbal government excitement.’”
Interestingly, Cordish told Recode that the government is in communication with The Boring Company every day.
“In essence we’ve had the same technology for tunneling, it hasn’t changed in the last fifty years. And what Elon has done is he’s challenged his best engineers to reimagine that approach,” Cordish said.
“And we are working with them every day,” Cordish continued, “to get government out of the way.” Cordish specifically said he’s been “talking to [Musk] and his company every day about the Boring Company.”
State and local leaders have sounded off in support of Musk’s plan. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan tweeted last month that he is “proud to support” The Boring Company’s efforts to connect Baltimore and D.C. – a leg of the NYC to D.C. route.
Our administration is proud to support The Boring Company to bring rapid electric transportation to MD – connecting Baltimore City to D.C. 🚄 pic.twitter.com/5DoLSLDesP
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) October 19, 2017
The Recode report says an infrastructure reform package being developed could include more than $200 billion in new government funds and lessened regulation for moonshot projects, like Musk’s vision for travel via high-speed tunnels.