On May 29, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s decision that threatened to halt the construction of the proposed Uinta Basin Railway through eastern Utah. 

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board approved the construction of the Uinta Basin back in 2021. The proposed railroad would connect Utah’s oil-rich Uinta Basin with the national rail network at Kyune, Utah, on Union Pacific’s Provo Subdivision (the former Denver & Rio Grande Western over Soldier Summit). However, the project has drawn ire from environmental groups who sued the STB, alleging that the board did not consider the “downstream” impacts of oil trains going through sensitive environmental areas (like Glenwood Canyon in Colorado). In 2023, a U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled in favor of the environmental groups, effectively stopping the project in its tracks. 

The STB appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, and in a unanimous 8-0 ruling, the court determined that the regulator had acted appropriately in its 2021 approval of the project. 

“Over the years, some have sought to abuse NEPA by unlawfully turning a procedural tool into an ideological weapon,” said Board Chairman Patrick Fuchs. “Today’s decision is a victory for common sense, economic growth, and meaningful environmental review. I strongly supported the Board’s approval decision and subsequent legal defense, and I am pleased the Supreme Court has upheld the diligent work of the agency for the benefit of the public.”

If the Uinta Basin’s backers are successful in building the railroad, it would be the first major railroad construction project in the U.S. in more than a generation (the last being the Chicago & North Western’s push into Wyoming’s Powder River Basin back in the 1980s). —Justin Franz