WASHINGTON— Environmental and public health groups opposing a Utah oil train's efforts to shortcut environmental review will hold a virtual press briefing on Tuesday, Dec. 3, to outline the arguments the U.S. Supreme Court will consider in a case challenging the scope of the nation’s landmark environmental law.

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. Environmental groups, public-health advocates and communities along the proposed route say the lower court’s decision should stand.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case, which considers the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act, on Dec. 10.

WHAT: A virtual press briefing with people who would be harmed by the Uinta Basin Railway.

WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 12 p.m. ET.

WHERE: Virtual via Zoom. To register, please RSVP to [email protected] to receive dial-in information.

WHO:

• Deeda Seed, Utah-based senior campaigner, Center for Biological Diversity
• Brian Moench, M.D., board chair, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment
• Jonathan Goodes, city council member, Glenwood Springs, Colorado
• Sam Sankar, senior vice president of programs, Earthjustice

Background: The National Environmental Policy Act, 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.

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.

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.

In August 2023 a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. Surface Transportation Board — the agency tasked with reviewing the proposed railway’s potential environmental harms — had violated numerous environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, by failing to consider the risks of increased oil extraction in the Uinta Basin and the potential harm from refining to Gulf Coast communities in Texas and Louisiana.

The agency also failed to address sufficiently the railway's downline threats, such as derailments and wildfires, to wildlife, the Colorado River, and public health and safety.

The groups defending the law include the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, Living Rivers, WildEarth Guardians, and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.