The US Supreme Court will consider reviving a Utah shortline project permit that federal rail regulators had approved but that an appeals court found lacked sufficient environmental review.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) approved construction of the Uinta Basin Railway in December 2021. Opponents said STB failed to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act and took STB to court.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia agreed with the opponents and overturned the STB decision in August 2023. The US Supreme Court said today it will hear the case.
The proposed 88-mile railroad would originate at two locations in the Uinta Basin near South Myton Bench, Utah, and Leland Bench, Utah, and connect to western Class I railroad Union Pacific near Kyune, Utah.
The project originally was expected to transport about 80,000 b/d of waxy crude as well as other cargo, but demand for waxy crude has picked up, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition executive director Keith Heaton said. The line also would provide a new transportation option for the region. Local mining and manufacturing businesses have to rely on trucks to ship out of the basin.
The type of review envisioned by the appeals court would be unable to encompass the potential environmental impacts from everything that would be shipped by rail, Heaton said.
The government must avoid regulatory overreach that "could put into jeopardy projects that might be necessary in helping to strengthen our nation's supply chain", National Industrial Transportation League executive director Nancy O'Liddy said.
Wendy Park, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, called the lower court's ruling on "this destructive project" legally sound.
Development of the project is on hold pending a decision in the litigation.
