The Seven County Infrastructure Coalition and Uinta Basin Railway, LLC has officially petitioned the Supreme Court regarding the proposed Uinta Basin Railway. The project faces lawsuits and permitting challenges, most recently the withdrawal of the Forest Service permit concerning 12 miles of Forest Service land in Duchesne County. The petition to the Supreme Court hopes to open doors forward after rulings by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit called for further environmental review of the project. The ‘Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari’ filed on March 4th states that “the question presented is: Whether the National Environmental Policy Act requires an agency to study environmental impacts beyond the proximate effects of the action over which the agency has regulatory authority.” It refers to a 2004 ruling in Department of Transportation v. Public Citizen in which the majority agreed that “an agency’s environmental review can stop where its regulatory authority stops.” For general information about the Uinta Basin Railway project, visit www.UintaBasinRailway.com.
