U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of controversial Utah oil train 

Freight trains sit idle in railyards in Grand Junction on May 16, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a controversial railway that would connect Colorado to Utah’s oil-rich Uinta Basin, allowing the state to ramp up oil exports. 

The unanimous decision released Thursday clears a major hurdle for the proposed Uinta Basin Railway, which has been held up in the courts for several years after Colorado’s Eagle County and five environmental groups sued in 2022. 

In 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals’ D.C. Circuit sided with Eagle County and the environmental groups, ruling that the railway’s initial environmental review was incomplete and failed to consider certain risks, like threats of wildfire or possible water pollution. 

Thursday’s ruling overturns that decision, returning the case to a lower court for consideration. While it’s a win for the railway, the project still faces other regulatory roadblocks before construction can begin. 

The Uinta Basin Railway would transport waxy crude oil — a type of oil that, as its name suggests, is viscous like shoe polish — from the Uinta Basin to national rail lines in Utah, where it would then be exported through Colorado and eventually to refineries on the Gulf Coast. 

The 88-mile railway extension could transport an estimated 350,000 barrels each day, massively increasing the state’s oil production — the refineries in Salt Lake City, for instance, currently have a market capacity of 85,000 barrels per day.

Proponents of the project say the railway will help Utah’s economic growth and bring jobs to the Uinta Basin. 

But in their lawsuit, environmental groups and Eagle County argued that the federal Surface Transportation Board — the agency tasked with the environmental review — fell short in its analysis in 2021, failing to consider the risks of the railroad expansion. 

That includes the upstream risks, like the environmental impact of more oil production in the Uinta Basin; the downstream risks, including potential harms caused by increased oil production on the Gulf Coast; and the downline risks of exporting more oil along the railline, which the lawsuit claimed could harm wildlife, increase risk of wildfire, and lead to more pollution. 

The appeals court ultimately sided with that argument, nullifying parts of the original environmental impact statement required under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, and instructing the board to conduct a more detailed analysis of the risks.

In his opinion issued Thursday, Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected that decision, writing that the board’s review of the project only needs to focus on the railway’s immediate impacts — not the ripple of environmental concerns flagged in the lawsuit. 

“The Board did not need to evaluate potential environmental impacts of the separate upstream and downstream projects,” Kavanaugh wrote. “The environmental consequences of future oil drilling in the Basin are distinct from construction and operation of the railroad line.” 

Justice Neil Gorsuch did not take part in the consideration of the case. 

‘Welcome news’: Utah politicians react

Proponents of the project on Thursday celebrated the ruling, calling it a “significant victory,” “welcome news” and a decision that “empowered local and state governments.”

“The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling poses a firm and a clear message: NEPA is a ‘procedural cross-check, not a substantive roadblock,’” said Utah Republican Sen. John Curtis, quoting the decision. “For too long, litigious groups have weaponized environmental reviews to stall critical projects — oil, gas, wind, solar, nuclear, and more. I’ll keep pushing for real permitting reform to unlock our full potential to provide affordable, reliable, and clean energy.”

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

Utah Republican Rep. Mike Kennedy said the project will give an economic boost to the region, saying the ruling has the potential to streamline projects that go through the NEPA process.

“Prior to this ruling, NEPA was used by agencies and interest groups to delay or block projects, hindering growth in rural communities. By affirming the project’s approval, the Court has empowered local and state governments to pursue development opportunities that directly benefit Utah residents,” Kennedy said.

Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, called the decision a win for “Utah and American energy independence.”

“The Uinta Basin Railway will power our economy by connecting rural Utah to more markets, supporting job creation and energy production,” Adams said. “Utah already leads the nation with low energy prices, and this project helps secure our state’s position as a global energy leader, delivering reliable, safe and affordable power for generations to come.”

Colorado will keep fighting

In Colorado, where critics of the railway fear for the Colorado River, the West’s most vital water source, and nearby communities, the response voiced frustration but not resignation.

In a statement, Attorney General Phil Weiser maintained that the lower court’s ruling was correct in finding NEPA requires a full understanding of potential environmental hazards for projects like the railway.

“The Surface Transportation Board must still decide other environmental issues that weren’t part of this case. We’ll remain vigilant and deploy every tool available under the law to protect Colorado’s land, air, and water and hold federal agencies accountable to their oversight obligations,” Weiser said.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat, said in a statement that the decision “lays the groundwork for an environmental catastrophe.”

“As the harsh impacts of the climate crisis increase the vulnerability of the Colorado River, the risk of an oil spill along this train route is unacceptable,” DeGette said, noting the route travels through Denver. “This is a public health nightmare waiting to happen, and I am deeply concerned about how this decision will hamper environmental justice and allow big oil and gas to exploit our public lands.”

Groups warn of broader NEPA implications 

The law at the center of Thursday’s ruling, NEPA, has long been criticized by industry and politicians as a hindrance to permitting. The environmental review process — meant to take differing opinions, cultural and environmental impacts and alternate proposals into consideration — can sometimes take years.

Politicians, including Curtis and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, have advocated for permitting reform to streamline projects like the Uinta Basin Railway. Cox has criticized environmental and public lands groups that he says use NEPA as a tool to tangle controversial projects up in litigation.

Environmental groups worry that expediting the process could result in hasty decisions that ignore public input and environmental risks.

And according to the Center for Biological Diversity, the recent decision from the high court could place further limitations on NEPA.

The ruling, according to the group, could set a precedent where federal agencies aren’t obligated to review harms, including the downstream, upstream and downline risks that were identified when the appeals court first ruled against the railway.

According to the center, the supreme court’s ruling “tells agencies that they can ignore certain foreseeable impacts just because they are too remote in time or space. And even if the agency makes the wrong call about how to draw that line, the court has now said that the agency gets deference.”

“Today’s decision undermines decades of legal precedent that told federal agencies to look before they leap when approving projects that could harm communities and the environment,” said Sam Sankar, senior vice president of programs at Earthjustice. “The Trump administration will treat this decision as an invitation to ignore environmental concerns as it tries to promote fossil fuels, kill off renewable energy, and destroy sensible pollution regulations.”

Cox, on the other hand, called the claim “hilarious” in a social media post Thursday. A proponent of the railway, Utah’s governor said the court didn’t “scale back” NEPA, but rather “unanimously stopped an insane idea that doesn’t exist anywhere in the law.”

“Extreme leftist groups have been destroying our ability to do anything in this country and weaponizing what was once simple and straight-forward. The court just read and applied the actual law here,” Cox said.

Cox repeated that sentiment speaking to reporters at a housing event Thursday, emphasizing the ruling was unanimous and maintaining that environmental groups have “made it impossible for us to build anything” and “lowered the quality of life in this country.”

“We’re going to get this railroad built, and we’re going to continue to build other things, nuclear energy. It’s a new day in Utah. Grateful to have an administration that’s supporting us in that,” Cox said. 

This breaking story has been updated. 

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE