He can’t build it profitably, or at least without going through the environmental impact review that every other project of this scale must pass. Do you really think the hole digging is the bottleneck for every other underground project?
California's high speed rail has been subject to the same scrutiny and legal threats. Was Boring/Musk completely ignorant of well-known past precedent and hurdles when they claimed they could build a transportation project for much cheaper? As recently as 1 month ago, Musk still thought and publicly claimed that the tunnel "opens Dec 10": https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1054164838430064640
No, it doesn't.
Of course not, Boring pulled out rather than go through the process that would evaluate any risks.
> Tunneling is really safe.
Then there was no reason to avoid environmental review.
The environmental review process doesn't stop a lot of infrastructure getting built, people prioritizing public spending on other priorities does.
> The current process is just a fig leaf for everyone getting a NIMBY veto.
No, it's not.
> California ought to be ashamed of its technological paralysis.
Perhaps, but CEQA isn't the source of the problem, to the extent there is one.