WASHINGTON — Oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court are set for Dec. 10 regarding the appeal of the lower-court decision blocking construction of the Uinta Basin Railway, the Grand Junction (Colo.) Daily Sentinel reports.
The Supreme Court agreed in June to hear the appeal from the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, the Utah governmental body backing the proposed 88-mile rail line to connect a remote oil-producing area to the national rail network [see “Supreme Court to review decision …,” Trains News Wire, June 24, 2024]. In 2023, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned the Surface Transportation Board decision allowing construction of the rail line, saying the STB decision was “arbitrary and capricious” for failing to consider larger environmental impacts related to the rail line, such as the effects of the drilling and refining of the oil [see “Federal court strikes down approval …,” News Wire, Aug. 18, 2023]. That sent the matter back to the STB for a new review.
Citing what it said are conflicting lower-court decisions on considering downstream effects in an environmental review, the Seven County group asked the Supreme Court to decide “whether the National Environmental Policy Act requires an agency to study environmental impacts beyond the proximate effects of the action over which the agency has regulatory authority.”
