Eagle County remains involved in legal effort to derail Uinta oil train plan as U.S. Supreme Court takes up appeal
Even a successful appeal will only remand the case to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board
Hugh Carey/The Colorado Sun
Despite numerous setbacks to a proposal to ship crude oil by rail along the Colorado River, the plan isn’t dead yet, and Eagle County’s government is still opposed.
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 to a Dec. 7, 2023 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that rejected a motion to rehear challenges to the Uinta Basin Railway. That proposal was for an 88-mile line linking wells in Utah’s Uinta Basin to the Union Pacific Railroad’s main line. That line parallels the Colorado River across the Western Slope, including through Glenwood Canyon and across much of Eagle County.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board Approved the plan in 2021. But the prospect of the line 鈥� which could have meant trains hauling as much as 350,000 barrels per day of crude oil 鈥� quickly drew the involvement of Eagle County officials. Eagle County was eventually joined by other local governments along the proposed route. Several environmental groups were also involved in the fight to overturn the approval. State and federal officials eventually joined the effort to stop the rail line.
The idea, proposed by a seven-county coalition in the Uinta Basin in Utah, was to create the rail link to avoid trucking the so-called waxy crude from the well sites. The proposed 88-mile rail line would link the well sites to the main rail line and deliver the crude to the Denver area and then on to refineries in Texas.
Since word came that the nation’s highest court was picking up the coalition’s appeal of the appeals court’s 2023 decision, Eagle County Commissioner Matt Scherr said the county remains involved in the legal battle to keep the crude-carrying rail cars away from the river. But, he added, both the appeal and the court’s decision to take it up came as a surprise.
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“It looked like a Hail Mary to us,” Scherr said of the challenge.
In the view of the parties who appealed the Surface Transportation Board’s 2021 decision, that agency wrongly decided the Utah coalition’s application, something the appeals court confirmed.
The appeals court decision wasn’t unusual from a legal standpoint, Scherr said.
As the Supreme Court deliberates the coalition’s appeal, Scherr noted that even if the high court rules in favor of that appeal, a favorable decision only remands the case back to the Surface Transportation Board. That agency has to again take up the application, essentially starting the process from scratch.
“I’m surprised (the court) took it up,” Scherr said, adding that the coalition’s appeal addresses only one of six points of law ruled on by the federal appeals court.
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That may be one less hurdle (to approval), “but apparently they’ll pursue it,” Scherr said.
The Supreme Court will take up the case in its 2024-2025 term. Even with a favorable ruling, the application will then require even more deliberation by the Surface Transportation Board.
“It seems like this doesn’t advance (the project) very much down the track,” Scherr said. “We don’t get it.”
