The U.S. election has come and gone, the Prop8 nay and yea teams are still smacking each other around and one of the more interesting things to come out California since the election is being missed by just about everyone. You see the folks in California voted for another proposition that was on their ballots and could see the state reduce greenhouse gases by up to 12.7 billion pounds per year. Yup that billions with a capital ‘B’ folks and given that California is the 12th largest source of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet this is pretty cool stuff.

So how are they going to do this?

Well they voted in favour of an 800 mile long high speed train system that will run from Sacremento to San Diego and stop in every major city along the way. As well the the construction; which is slated to begin in 2011, will create some 450,000 jobs and in the end will reduce dependence on foreign oil by about 12 million barrels a year.

You can see more rendering and videos about the rail system at the Newlands & Company site.

[hat tip to Inhabitat]