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The Supreme Court issued a ruling that will limit the scope of environmental reviews for major federal projects such as pipelines and railways. The unanimous 8-0 ruling centered around the Uinta Basin Railway, a proposed 88-mile oil railroad expansion in Utah. The justices reversed a 2023 lower court decision that stated the railway’s initial NEPA review was incomplete because it failed to consider risks like wildfire or water pollution.
Yesterday's ruling is likely to have significant implications for future NEPA reviews, setting a precedent for less elaborate reviews that only focus on immediate impacts, not broader environmental concerns. It grants federal agencies broader power to decide which environmental harms to analyze. “Simply stated, NEPA is a procedural cross-check, not a substantive roadblock. The goal of the law is to inform agency decisionmaking, not to paralyze it,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the court opinion.
If the proposed railway moves forward, it would more than double the total amount of oil transported in the U.S. and increase hazardous material transport through sensitive areas, including along the Colorado River. A potential derailment would have severe environmental and public health consequences. “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 Sambhav Sankar, senior vice president of programs at Earthjustice.
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The killer is that all of the money is appropriated, they have the money to hire these folks. They don’t have to stretch people thin. Congress has to hold the administration responsible and tell them to hire folks and get boots on the ground. The administration made a big show of hiring seasonal staff, and they’re not doing it. There’s no commitment to staff our parks.”
