Supreme Court to Consider Reinstating Approval for Utah Railroad

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on June 24 to review a ruling that invalidated federal approval for an 88-mile railroad in Utah, which producers want built to transport oil and gas to more markets.

Justices granted a petition for a writ of certiorari brought by Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, a coalition of counties, and the Uinta Basin Railway company. That means they'll consider whether to overturn the ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that erased the U.S. Surface Transportation Board’s approval of the project, known as the Uinta Basin Railway.

A panel of appeals court judges said in 2023 that the board violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by conducting an inadequate environmental review for the project. The board failed to quantify foreseeable impacts on vegetation and animals from increased oil drilling and did not “take a hard look at wildfire risk as well as impacts on water resources downline,” the panel said.

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