WASHINGTON A coalition representing environmental groups sued the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. Fish and Wildlife Service and the federal governments over the STBs approval for Utah’s Uinta Basin Railway.
Friday’s suit was filedThe Center for Biological Diversity, along with four other groups, seeks to have the STB decision reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. They also want to review what it calls an arbitrary biological opinion by the Fish & Wildlife Service.
According to the groups, the STB did not consider the environmental consequences of extracting and preparing crude oil at a rate of up to 350,000 barrels per day. This would add 53 million tons of carbon dioxide annually to the atmosphere.
It’s shocking that the board approved the climate-killing project, which deeply undermined President Bidens pledge to address climate emergency, Deeda, senior public lands activist at the Center for Biological Diversity said in A press releaseThe board’s action completely ignored the pollution directly caused by this filthy train, and thats illegal.
The suit also includes Living Rivers and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. WildEarth Guardians is also a plaintiff.
We need to do a complete accounting of the climate costs of fossil fuel infrastructure projects, such as the Uinta Basin Railway. Dan Mayhew is the conservation chair for Utah Chapter of Sierra Club.
Michael Booth, STB spokesperson ReutersThe board is transparent in its decisions but declined to comment on the suit.
The STB granted the regulatory exemption to allow construction of the 85-mile line connecting oilfields in Western Utah with the national rail network. It was completed Dec. 15. [see STB clears path for Uinta Basin Railway project, Trains News Wire, Dec. 16, 2021]. It decided that while the project would likely have unavoidable impacts on the environment, the transportation benefits outweigh those impacts.