--- description: Find out why Wes Edens was selected for the list. title: TIME100 Climate 2024: Wes Edens image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5c496ed735154d5/698a9c0ecabb1d817fe5b43a/Innovators_Wes_Edens.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 12, 2024 # Wes Edens by [Chad de Guzman](/author/chad-de-guzman/) ## Chad de Guzman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Reporter  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Image: Courtesy Wes Edens) A land trip from Las Vegas to Southern California in a little over two hours will soon be possible, and it will also be green—thanks to Wes Edens. The billionaire private equity investor already has his hands full with co-owning the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and the English Premier League’s Aston Villa football club, and running an energy business with a liquefied natural gas focus. Now, added to his list of goals is a high-speed rail-filled future for the U.S. It’s not just an altruistic plan, it makes financial sense too: “These intra-city rail systems around the world are all highly profitable,” [Edens recently told NBC](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/04/22/wes-edens-on-brightline-west-groundbreaking-geopolitical-market-risks-and-the-fed.html "undefined"). In 2012, Edens founded the private train operator Brightline, now known for its characteristic yellow-trimmed coaches in Florida. In April, the company broke ground on a 218-mile, fully-electric zero-emissions line, expected to run through California at speeds of 200 m.p.h., outpacing existing domestic high-speed trains. Brightline estimates that the new Brightline West train won’t only be convenient for travelers but also for the environment: the company estimates it can could get as many as 3 million cars off the road and avoid 400,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year. The project, which costs $12 billion, has the government’s backing: in September, it received $3 billion in funding under President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal. While the train hasn’t arrived yet, Edens says that “proof of concept of one system can really then galvanize \[new projects\] and turn those into deals,” and new routes are already being considered in other parts of the U.S. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-climate-2024/7172604/wes-edens/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-climate-2024/7172604/wes-edens/"},"headline":"TIME100 Climate 2024: Wes Edens","datePublished":"2024-11-12T11:22:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:41:46.456Z","description":"Find out why Wes Edens was selected for the list.","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-climate-2024/7172604/wes-edens/","keywords":["climate","list","TIME100 Climate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5c496ed735154d5/698a9c0ecabb1d817fe5b43a/Innovators_Wes_Edens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chad de Guzman","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/"}],"creator":"Chad de Guzman","articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5c496ed735154d5/698a9c0ecabb1d817fe5b43a/Innovators_Wes_Edens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate/","name":"climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-climate-2024/7172604/wes-edens/","name":"TIME100 Climate 2024: Wes Edens"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See Everyone on the TIME100 Climate List","description":"See Everyone on the TIME100 Climate List","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bAE3wfZz/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-11-11T20:11:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bAE3wfZz.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/time100-climate-2024/7172604/wes-edens/","duration":"PT1M53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/time100-climate-2024/7172604/wes-edens/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```