{"id":335704,"date":"2024-07-06T09:36:26","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T07:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335704"},"modified":"2024-07-06T09:36:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-06T07:36:28","slug":"supreme-court-to-decide-whether-climate-studies-will-be-required-for-infrastructure-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335704","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court to decide whether climate studies will be required for Infrastructure projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Supreme Court June 24 agreed to take up a case that may ultimately determine whether critical infrastructure projects \u2013 from transportation to transmission of energy \u2013 will require climate impact analyses before that can go forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans by a public-private partnership to construct an 88-mile-long rail line in eastern Utah connecting oil producers in the area to a nationwide rail network were put on hold, when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, siding with environmental activists, ruled<\/a> that local officials had not given the project\u2019s climate impacts adequate consideration, and that more studies were needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon completion, the Uinta Basin Railway would enable an additional 350,000 barrels of oil a day to be shipped to markets nationwide, including all the way to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. Currently, the oil produced in rural Utah is carried on tanker trucks, a far more expensive and less energy-efficient way of bringing the product to market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>But the proposed rail line hit a roadblock last year, when the D.C. Circuit Court ruled that the Surface Transportation Board\u2019s environmental approval of the project was rushed and violated federal law. The court said<\/a> the board should have studied the impact of the drilling and transporting more oil along the entire route, stretching thousands of miles to the Gulf Coast. https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/supreme-court-utah-uinta-basin-railway-oil-d6dfb030e7176d8bfed30906ad839981<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizing the threat such an expansive view of the Surface Transportation Board\u2019s authority poses to their rail line and other infrastructure projects, the developers, investment firm DHIP Group and the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, a body of eastern Utah officials, petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDe-facto Environmental Policy Czar\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cBy requiring an agency to consider any environmental effect that it has the power to prevent, no matter the limits of its regulatory authority, the D.C. Circuit rule turns each agency into a \u2018de-facto environmental-policy czar,\u2019\u201d the coalition argued in its petition<\/a>. https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/docket\/docketfiles\/html\/public\/23-975.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmental groups, along with Colorado Sen. Michael Bennett (D) are vehemently opposed to the project, citing the rail line\u2019s effect on climate change and the possibility of a spill in the Colorado River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing the Supreme Court took up this case but the appellate court decision on this destructive project is sound and should ultimately stand,\u201d Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes four justices for the Supreme Court to agree to hear a case, and getting that number is seen as a good sign by the rail line\u2019s backers. But before the high court hands down a ruling, it will likely have to revisit a 2004 case, Department of Transportation v. Public Citizen<\/em>. That ruling said that, under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), an agency need not assess an environmental impact if it lies outside the agency\u2019s jurisdiction. In the 20 years since the opinion was handed down, some federal courts have adhered to a narrow interpretation of the ruling, limiting environmental reviews to areas where an agency has congressionally defined regulatory authority. Other courts, such as the D.C. Circuit Court, have taken a more expansive view of an agency\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Keith Heaton, director of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, says the Supreme Court needs to provide better guidance when it comes to this key provision of NEPA. \u201cWhat the Washington court ruled was that we needed to look more at upstream and downstream environmental impacts but the D.C. Circuit Court didn\u2019t define what that means\u2026There\u2019s nothing to prevent anyone anywhere from coming back after we do more work to say you didn\u2019t do this in this place,\u201d he told<\/a> BASINNOW.com<\/em>. https:\/\/www.basinnow.com\/scic-director-supreme-court-to-hear-uinta-basin-railway-case\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Opportunity to Rein in the Administrative State<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crippling the infrastructure needed for the extraction and transport of fossil fuels is a key component of the transition to green energy. Now that the Supreme Court has agreed to take up the case of the Utah rail line, the opportunity presented to climate activists by NEPA may be cut off. In recent decisions \u2013 West Virginia v. EPA<\/em>, Sackett v. EPA<\/em>, and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo<\/em> (overturning of Chevron deference) \u2013 the court has curtailed federal agencies\u2019 power to regulate beyond what Congress specifically authorized. This bodes well not only for the Utah rail line, but also for other construction projects around the country threatened by being tied up in knots by agencies overstepping their authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case will be heard this fall, with a ruling expected to be handed down in June 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Supreme Court June 24 agreed to take up a case that may ultimately determine whether critical infrastructure projects \u2013 from transportation to transmission of energy \u2013 will require climate impact analyses before that can go forward.<\/p>\n

Plans by a public-private partnership to construct an 88-mile-long rail line in eastern Utah connecting oil producers in the area to a nationwide rail network were put on hold, when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, siding with environmental activists, ruled that local officials had not given the project\u2019s climate impacts adequate consideration, and that more studies were needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":335706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820676,691829566,691829567,691829565,691818670],"class_list":{"0":"post-335704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-impacts","9":"tag-colorado-sen-michael-bennett-d","10":"tag-d-c-circuit-court","11":"tag-energy-transmission","12":"tag-supreme-court","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Construction-cranes-hard-hat.jpg?fit=2508%2C1672&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pkA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":360607,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=360607","url_meta":{"origin":335704,"position":0},"title":"US Supremes Hear Climate Lawfare Case to Stop Oil\u00a0Railway","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/01\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Supreme Court recently heard a\u00a0major case,\u00a0Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado,\u00a0that will affect the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The case concerns the\u00a0permitting of a proposed Utah railway that would ship oil\u00a0from the Uinta Basin, potentially\u00a0quadrupling its oil production.\u00a0The 88-mile\u00a0Uinta Basin Railway would\u00a0connect\u00a0the oil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0supreme-court-storm-AS-1280-1080x675-1.jpg?fit=1080%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0supreme-court-storm-AS-1280-1080x675-1.jpg?fit=1080%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0supreme-court-storm-AS-1280-1080x675-1.jpg?fit=1080%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0supreme-court-storm-AS-1280-1080x675-1.jpg?fit=1080%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0supreme-court-storm-AS-1280-1080x675-1.jpg?fit=1080%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":221808,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=221808","url_meta":{"origin":335704,"position":1},"title":"untitled","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/10\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"At the end of the day, it is likely not a question of if the Supreme Court will hear these cases, but when.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":249022,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=249022","url_meta":{"origin":335704,"position":2},"title":"Oregon Supreme Court ignores rural pleas and greenlights giant wind power line","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The $1.8 billion project has been held up by resistance from the STOP B2H Coalition, whose over 1,000 members fear the power line will irreversibly blight the picturesque countryside.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-898.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-898.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-898.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-898.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-898.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":206528,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=206528","url_meta":{"origin":335704,"position":3},"title":"All Eyes on SCOTUS: Supreme Court to Issue Climate Endangerment Finding Ruling \u2013 To Decide if EPA, or Congress, has authority to regulate CO2","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"30\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"From Climate Depot The case before the U.S. Supreme Court is West Virginia vs. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).The primary plaintiff of the case is West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey; 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