The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday helped clear the way for a proposed railroad connecting an oil-rich area of Utah to the nation’s freight rail network—a decision that will make it harder for plaintiffs to object to the adequacy of environmental impact statements for major infrastructure projects.
The justices reversed a lower court’s decision blocking the approval of the project. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had held that the U.S. Surface Transportation Board’s 3,600-page environmental review failed to consider the upstream and downstream effects of increased oil refining occasioned by the creation of the railroad.