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Supreme Court seems likely to narrow environmental reviews for projects
Supreme Court seems likely to narrow environmental reviews for projects
An 88-mile rail line in Utah has become a proxy battle over federal authority.
December 10, 2024 at 5:43 p.m. EST Yesterday at 5:43 p.m. EST
A train transports freight on a common carrier line near Price, Utah, on July 13, 2023. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
By Justin Jouvenal and Maxine Joselow
The Supreme Court appeared likely Tuesday to somewhat narrow the scope of environmental reviews required for major infrastructure projects nationwide as it weighed the construction of a Utah rail line that would carry billions of gallons of oil. ... The justices heard oral arguments over the controversial stretch of track that would connect the remote Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah to national rail lines, allowing more waxy crude from one of the nation’s largest oil fields to be transported to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
On its surface, the case is about the 88-mile rail line, but it has also become a proxy battle over how far federal agencies should go in assessing the environmental impact of highways, pipelines and other projects before deciding whether to approve them. ... Seven counties in the basin, a Native American tribe and oil interests say the project would boost the local economy, which has been hampered by mountainous terrain and a lack of transport into the sprawling, Maryland-sized basin.
Paul Clement, an attorney for the groups, urged the justices to adopt a narrow reading of what impacts agencies must consider under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the landmark law that has set the standard for environmental reviews for half a century. ... He said an agency should only have to consider effects close in time and proximity to a project and those that fall within its regulatory purview. He pointed out that the federal review of the rail line project was 3,600 pages and called for 91 mitigating measures. ... “It is designed to inform government decision-making, not paralyze it,” Clement said of NEPA. “Nonetheless, it has become the single most litigated environmental statute.”
But five environmental groups and the county that is home to Vail, Colorado, argue that NEPA calls for a more holistic review, saying the rail project could have devastating impacts on local habitats, could lead to oil spills in the Colorado River and would quintuple oil production, worsening climate change and pollution near refineries in the South. ... “The impacts at issue here are reasonably foreseeable consequences of this $2.7 billion railway project whose entire rationale is to transport crude oil,” said William M. Jay, an attorney for the environmental groups and Eagle County, Colorado. “Reasonable foreseeability is the test … that has been in NEPA since the beginning.” ... The federal Surface Transportation Board approved the rail project in 2021, finding the benefits of the line would outweigh the negative impacts. But the five environmental groups and Eagle County appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
{snip}
A decision in the current case is expected by this summer.
By Justin Jouvenal
Justin Jouvenal covers the Supreme Court. He previously covered policing and the courts locally and nationally. He joined The Post in 2009. follow on X@jjouvenal
By Maxine Joselow
Maxine Joselow is a staff writer who covers climate change and the environment.follow on X@maxinejoselow
An 88-mile rail line in Utah has become a proxy battle over federal authority.
December 10, 2024 at 5:43 p.m. EST Yesterday at 5:43 p.m. EST
A train transports freight on a common carrier line near Price, Utah, on July 13, 2023. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
By Justin Jouvenal and Maxine Joselow
The Supreme Court appeared likely Tuesday to somewhat narrow the scope of environmental reviews required for major infrastructure projects nationwide as it weighed the construction of a Utah rail line that would carry billions of gallons of oil. ... The justices heard oral arguments over the controversial stretch of track that would connect the remote Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah to national rail lines, allowing more waxy crude from one of the nation’s largest oil fields to be transported to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
On its surface, the case is about the 88-mile rail line, but it has also become a proxy battle over how far federal agencies should go in assessing the environmental impact of highways, pipelines and other projects before deciding whether to approve them. ... Seven counties in the basin, a Native American tribe and oil interests say the project would boost the local economy, which has been hampered by mountainous terrain and a lack of transport into the sprawling, Maryland-sized basin.
Paul Clement, an attorney for the groups, urged the justices to adopt a narrow reading of what impacts agencies must consider under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the landmark law that has set the standard for environmental reviews for half a century. ... He said an agency should only have to consider effects close in time and proximity to a project and those that fall within its regulatory purview. He pointed out that the federal review of the rail line project was 3,600 pages and called for 91 mitigating measures. ... “It is designed to inform government decision-making, not paralyze it,” Clement said of NEPA. “Nonetheless, it has become the single most litigated environmental statute.”
But five environmental groups and the county that is home to Vail, Colorado, argue that NEPA calls for a more holistic review, saying the rail project could have devastating impacts on local habitats, could lead to oil spills in the Colorado River and would quintuple oil production, worsening climate change and pollution near refineries in the South. ... “The impacts at issue here are reasonably foreseeable consequences of this $2.7 billion railway project whose entire rationale is to transport crude oil,” said William M. Jay, an attorney for the environmental groups and Eagle County, Colorado. “Reasonable foreseeability is the test … that has been in NEPA since the beginning.” ... The federal Surface Transportation Board approved the rail project in 2021, finding the benefits of the line would outweigh the negative impacts. But the five environmental groups and Eagle County appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
{snip}
A decision in the current case is expected by this summer.
By Justin Jouvenal
Justin Jouvenal covers the Supreme Court. He previously covered policing and the courts locally and nationally. He joined The Post in 2009. follow on X@jjouvenal
By Maxine Joselow
Maxine Joselow is a staff writer who covers climate change and the environment.follow on X@maxinejoselow
How the Supreme Court viewed Colorado’s challenge to a Utah oil railroad — and what could be next
Gorsuch, in recusal apparently related to ties to conservative Colorado billionaire, absent during oral argument
By: Chase Woodruff - December 11, 2024 4:00 am
Anglers fish on the Colorado River near an idle Union Pacific freight train in western Grand County on June 12, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
With thousands of pages of briefs filed and two hours of oral argument completed on Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court declared the case known as Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County formally “submitted.” ... Now the fates of both the Uinta Basin Railway, a proposed 88-mile railroad in eastern Utah, and the National Environmental Policy Act, a landmark 1970 federal law requiring federal agencies to study the environmental risks of major decisions, are in the hands of the court’s justices, who will deliberate behind closed doors in the weeks and months to come. But on both fronts, the outcome of a Supreme Court ruling may not be as clear-cut as some parties to the case had wished.
Approved by federal regulators in 2021, the Uinta Basin Railway would connect Utah’s largest oil field to the national rail network, allowing drillers there to ship up to 350,000 barrels of oil per day in tanker cars through Colorado. In some parts of the state, that would result in up to a tenfold increase in hazmat rail traffic.
Colorado’s Eagle County and five environmental groups sued to overturn the project’s approval, alleging its environmental analyses were insufficient under NEPA, and they prevailed in a lower court. The railway’s proponents, with support from conservative business groups who have long targeted NEPA for reform, appealed the case to the Supreme Court, asking justices not only to declare the project’s review sufficient but to impose strict limits on how the law is applied going forward.
Most controversially, the argument put forward by the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition — the group of Utah county governments backing the railway — proposes to limit the scope of NEPA reviews based in part on “proximate cause” principles borrowed from tort law, the area of law relating to legal liability. ... Environmental groups call that idea “absolutely bonkers” — and by and large, the Supreme Court showed little interest in adopting it wholesale during oral argument on Tuesday.
{snip}
Chase Woodruff
Chase Woodruff is a senior reporter for Colorado Newsline. His beats include the environment, money in politics, and the economy.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
MORE FROM AUTHOR
Gorsuch, in recusal apparently related to ties to conservative Colorado billionaire, absent during oral argument
By: Chase Woodruff - December 11, 2024 4:00 am
Anglers fish on the Colorado River near an idle Union Pacific freight train in western Grand County on June 12, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
With thousands of pages of briefs filed and two hours of oral argument completed on Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court declared the case known as Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County formally “submitted.” ... Now the fates of both the Uinta Basin Railway, a proposed 88-mile railroad in eastern Utah, and the National Environmental Policy Act, a landmark 1970 federal law requiring federal agencies to study the environmental risks of major decisions, are in the hands of the court’s justices, who will deliberate behind closed doors in the weeks and months to come. But on both fronts, the outcome of a Supreme Court ruling may not be as clear-cut as some parties to the case had wished.
Approved by federal regulators in 2021, the Uinta Basin Railway would connect Utah’s largest oil field to the national rail network, allowing drillers there to ship up to 350,000 barrels of oil per day in tanker cars through Colorado. In some parts of the state, that would result in up to a tenfold increase in hazmat rail traffic.
Colorado’s Eagle County and five environmental groups sued to overturn the project’s approval, alleging its environmental analyses were insufficient under NEPA, and they prevailed in a lower court. The railway’s proponents, with support from conservative business groups who have long targeted NEPA for reform, appealed the case to the Supreme Court, asking justices not only to declare the project’s review sufficient but to impose strict limits on how the law is applied going forward.
Most controversially, the argument put forward by the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition — the group of Utah county governments backing the railway — proposes to limit the scope of NEPA reviews based in part on “proximate cause” principles borrowed from tort law, the area of law relating to legal liability. ... Environmental groups call that idea “absolutely bonkers” — and by and large, the Supreme Court showed little interest in adopting it wholesale during oral argument on Tuesday.
{snip}
Chase Woodruff
Chase Woodruff is a senior reporter for Colorado Newsline. His beats include the environment, money in politics, and the economy.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
MORE FROM AUTHOR
How Utah’s oil train project and its Colorado opponents ended up at the Supreme Court
Timeline of a case that involves the potential for dramatically increased hazardous shipments through some of Colorado’s most environmentally fragile and densely populated places
By: Chase Woodruff - December 9, 2024 4:00 am
A train drives along the Colorado River near downtown Glenwood Springs, June 9, 2023. (William Woody for Colorado Newsline)
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in a case that could determine the fate of a Utah oil train project opposed by Colorado communities — and possibly reshape a key federal environmental law in the process. ... It’s been more than five years since the Uinta Basin Railway was first formally proposed to federal transportation regulators. The 88-mile short-line railroad would connect Utah’s largest oil field to the national rail network, allowing drillers there to dramatically ramp up production and ship it in tanker cars to Gulf Coast refineries on a route that runs directly through some of Colorado’s most environmentally fragile and densely populated places.
The multibillion-dollar proposal could be an economic boon for the isolated Uinta Basin, and it’s backed by a public-private partnership between industry and seven Utah county governments. But environmental groups and Colorado’s Eagle County have sued to overturn the project’s approval, arguing that regulators failed to properly analyze “downline impacts” from the railway’s construction, including the added risks of accidents, spills, wildfire ignitions and more.
At an estimated capacity of up to 350,000 barrels of oil per day, the Uinta Basin Railway would rank among the largest sustained efforts to transport oil by rail ever undertaken in the U.S., singlehandedly more than doubling the 2022 nationwide total. Traffic from the new rail line alone would represent a tenfold increase in hazmat rail shipments through central Colorado.
Environmental groups have also cited concerns about the railway’s downstream impacts on communities living near refineries on the Gulf Coast, as well as a worsening ozone pollution problem in the Uinta Basin itself as producers there increase production. ... Attorneys for the railway’s backers, dismissing concerns about what they call “remote contingencies” and “uncertain and far-downstream ramifications,” have asked the Supreme Court to impose drastic limits on the agency reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act. Meanwhile, the federal government has staked out a middle ground before the court, asking justices to issue a narrow ruling and remand the case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
{snip}
Chase Woodruff
Chase Woodruff is a senior reporter for Colorado Newsline. His beats include the environment, money in politics, and the economy.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
MORE FROM AUTHOR
Timeline of a case that involves the potential for dramatically increased hazardous shipments through some of Colorado’s most environmentally fragile and densely populated places
By: Chase Woodruff - December 9, 2024 4:00 am
A train drives along the Colorado River near downtown Glenwood Springs, June 9, 2023. (William Woody for Colorado Newsline)
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in a case that could determine the fate of a Utah oil train project opposed by Colorado communities — and possibly reshape a key federal environmental law in the process. ... It’s been more than five years since the Uinta Basin Railway was first formally proposed to federal transportation regulators. The 88-mile short-line railroad would connect Utah’s largest oil field to the national rail network, allowing drillers there to dramatically ramp up production and ship it in tanker cars to Gulf Coast refineries on a route that runs directly through some of Colorado’s most environmentally fragile and densely populated places.
The multibillion-dollar proposal could be an economic boon for the isolated Uinta Basin, and it’s backed by a public-private partnership between industry and seven Utah county governments. But environmental groups and Colorado’s Eagle County have sued to overturn the project’s approval, arguing that regulators failed to properly analyze “downline impacts” from the railway’s construction, including the added risks of accidents, spills, wildfire ignitions and more.
At an estimated capacity of up to 350,000 barrels of oil per day, the Uinta Basin Railway would rank among the largest sustained efforts to transport oil by rail ever undertaken in the U.S., singlehandedly more than doubling the 2022 nationwide total. Traffic from the new rail line alone would represent a tenfold increase in hazmat rail shipments through central Colorado.
Environmental groups have also cited concerns about the railway’s downstream impacts on communities living near refineries on the Gulf Coast, as well as a worsening ozone pollution problem in the Uinta Basin itself as producers there increase production. ... Attorneys for the railway’s backers, dismissing concerns about what they call “remote contingencies” and “uncertain and far-downstream ramifications,” have asked the Supreme Court to impose drastic limits on the agency reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act. Meanwhile, the federal government has staked out a middle ground before the court, asking justices to issue a narrow ruling and remand the case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
{snip}
Chase Woodruff
Chase Woodruff is a senior reporter for Colorado Newsline. His beats include the environment, money in politics, and the economy.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
MORE FROM AUTHOR
From Colorado Newsline, December 10, 2024:
Supreme Court weighs limits on key federal environmental law
Justices hear arguments from Utah oil train backers and Colorado opponents
By: Chase Woodruff - December 10, 2024 10:55 am
Justices hear arguments from Utah oil train backers and Colorado opponents
By: Chase Woodruff - December 10, 2024 10:55 am
From Colorado Newsline, December 10, 2024:
Supreme Court showdown over Uinta Basin Railway puts environmental law in the crosshairs
Oil field project in eastern Utah would cause up to a tenfold increase in hazmat rail traffic in Colorado
By: Chase Woodruff - December 10, 2024 4:00 am
Oil field project in eastern Utah would cause up to a tenfold increase in hazmat rail traffic in Colorado
By: Chase Woodruff - December 10, 2024 4:00 am
Thu Oct 31, 2024: Eastern Utah wants an oil railroad. Nation's highest court will decide how feds should judge its environmental impact.
Sat Jun 29, 2024: Gee, What Next? SCOTUS To Consider Appeal Of Decision Blocking Utah Oil Trains Along Colorado River
Wed Apr 10, 2024: Utah, trade groups ask Supreme Court to review oil rail line
Mon Feb 5, 2024: Group wants to use taxpayer money to bring Utah oil railroad controversy to the Supreme Court
Tue Aug 29, 2023: After Court Rejects Approval, What's Next For Uinta Basin Railway?
Sat Aug 19, 2023: Appeals court strikes down Utah oil railroad approval, siding with environmentalists
Sun Jul 30, 2023: Moffat Tunnel lease could become part of fight over Uinta Basin Railway
Sat Mar 11, 2023: Oh, Good Idea! Let's Run Oil Trains For More Than 100 Miles Along The Colorado River!