Supreme Court probes environmental review of Utah oil railway
The Supreme Court justices will weigh the fate of an 88-mile railroad project that would transport crude oil in Utah as they consider a dispute over whether federal officials conducted a stringent enough environmental review before approving it.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday weighed the fate of an 88-mile railroad project that would transport crude oil in Utah in a dispute over whether federal officials conducted a stringent enough environmental review before approving it.
Based on the two-hour oral argument, it appeared a majority of justices were likely to conclude that the federal government's analysis was sufficient.
But the court could stop short of a broader pro-business ruling that would place new limits on the scope of such studies with the aim of speeding up the approval process for big infrastructure projects.
The railroad proposed by the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, a group of local counties, would help bring oil from the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah by connecting the area to the national rail network.
It is opposed by Eagle County, Colorado, which claims that it will suffer from downstream effects of the railroad, as well as environmental groups.
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