Keith Heaton, Director of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, shared some thoughts with Evans Family Media on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case concerning the Uinta Basin Railway’s environmental reviews. “The news is that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear our case objecting the Washington DC Circuit decision to put our permit on ice,” shared Heaton. “The Supreme Court is recessing for the summer so the earliest they would likely hear our case is late fall or early winter. Then they may wait on a decision for another 6 months until the 2025 recess.” Heaton explained that the nature of their position is 2-fold. “First of all, we are arguing for the project but more importantly and to the point with the Supreme Court is there needs to be better guidance on the National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA. What the Washington court ruled was that we needed to look more at upstream and downstream environmental impacts but the DC Circuit Court didn’t define what that means… There’s nothing to prevent anyone anywhere from coming back after we do more work to say you didn’t do this in this place. So what is reasonable that we look at?” Heaton said that about 20 years ago the Supreme Court ruled that the permitting agency should look at just the environmental impacts within the bounds of their jurisdiction and authority to do so. He also said that when it comes to the timing, it is anybody’s guess. “It is an exciting day but we are a long way from any kind of finish line,” shared Heaton. “If it goes perfectly we could be constructing in a couple years but more likely there will be more work to do and it is still a ways off.”
