Supreme Court Hears Arguments Over Utah Oil Train in Case Challenging Scope of Nation's Landmark Environmental Law

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, a case challenging the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act, the nation's landmark environmental law.

The hearing will take place at 10 a.m. ET; audio will be livestreamed.

Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition and a Utah railway company are asking the Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court decision tossing out the approval of an 88-mile railway through the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah. That decision said the U.S. Surface Transportation Board violated NEPA by failing to fully analyze the railway’s potential harm to the climate, wildlife, the Colorado River and people, including environmental justice communities along the Gulf Coast.

Environmental groups, public-health advocates and communities along the proposed route say the lower court’s decision should stand. The groups held a virtual press briefing last week to discuss the stakes of the case.

“This case is bigger than the Uinta Basin Railway,” said Earthjustice vice president of programs Sam Sankar. “The fossil fuel industry and its allies are making radical arguments that would blind the public to obvious health consequences of government decisions. The court should stick with settled law instead. If it doesn’t, communities will pay the price.”

The railway’s backers are asking the court to narrow what environmental impacts federal agencies must review and disclose to the public. That would mean federal agencies could ignore — and hide from the public — damage to clean air, water and wildlife habitats that destructive projects could cause.

“Analyzing the Uinta Basin Railway's impacts without considering the air pollution and habitat destruction from pumping billions of additional gallons of oil a year is like diving headfirst into a pool without knowing how deep it is,” said Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is a disgraceful attempt to get federal agencies to ignore the many harms the railway will cause to the air and public health of Uinta Basin and Gulf Coast communities. A robust review of all the train’s threats is what the law requires, and it's crucial for protecting people near and far from this railway.”

NEPA, passed by Congress and signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970, requires the government to engage with communities, analyze a project’s potential environmental harms, and disclose those potential harms to the public before approving that project.

“In 2013 the amount of volatile organic compounds pollution in the Uinta Basin was equal to what you would expect from 100 million cars, eight times more cars than are registered in the Los Angeles Basin. That is unquestionably a public health nightmare,” said Dr. Brian Moench, president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. "I have been to the basin myself to measure VOCs, in some places the fumes were physically overpowering. That the backers of this project would not only dismiss all that pollution, but propose that it’s okay for them to make it even five times worse, is a stunning disregard for the lives and wellbeing of the people in the basin.”

The proposed Uinta Basin Railway’s undisputed purpose is to transport waxy crude oil from the Uinta Basin through the Colorado Rockies to Gulf Coast refineries. If completed the railway would quintuple oil production in the Uinta Basin, up to an additional 14.7 million gallons per day, by linking the Utah oilfields to national rail networks.

The train would also threaten the health and safety of communities through Colorado and eventually in the Gulf of Mexico region, where the waxy crude oil would eventually arrive for refining. Derailments and other accidents along the route could contaminate the Colorado River, which provides drinking water to 40 million people across the West.

“Sending billions of gallons of oil in railcars along the Colorado River each year without understanding the damage from inevitable spills is a risk we can’t afford,” said John Weisheit, conservation director at Living Rivers. “Conducting a thorough environmental impact study is the bare minimum that must happen to protect wildlife and communities from this catastrophe in waiting.”

“In addition to destroying important wildlife habitat that supports iconic Western critters, including the greater sage-grouse, oil companies and their enablers are working overtime to slash bedrock American environmental laws and sacrifice our planet for their profits,” said Kate Merlin, staff attorney at WildEarth Guardians. “The future of the West's clean water, healthy communities and abundant wildlife is at stake.”

Earthjustice and the Center of Biological Diversity are representing Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, the Sierra Club, Living Rivers, and WildEarth Guardians. Eagle County is representing itself. Attorney Willy Jay of Goodwin Procter LLP will argue the case for Eagle County.