WASHINGTON (AP)-The Supreme Court supported a bill of dollarsThe oil railway expansion in UtahThursday in a decision belonging to a major environmental law for projects throughout the country.
theResolution 8-0It comes after the Supreme Court appealed the project supporters, which aims toProduction of quad -oilIn the remote area of sandstone and sagebrush.
Environmental groups said that the decision will have comprehensive effectsNational Environmental Policy LawReviews. The Trump administration has already said it accelerated this process after the president pledged to enhance US oil and gas development.
The case focuses onUinta railways,The expansion of the proposal of 88 miles (142 km) would link the oil and gas producers to the broader rail network and allow them to reach larger markets. Supporters argued that simplifying environmental reviews would accelerate development.
The opposite of the judges aThe minimum court decisionAnd the restoration of critical approval from the federal organizers onSurface Transport Board. The project can still face additional legal and regulatory obstacles.
The environmental groups and Colorado Province have argued that the organizers should consider a wide range of possible effects when they think about a new development, such as increasing the risk of a wildfire, the impact of additional crude oil production from the region and increased refining in the states of the Gulf Coast.
However, the judges found that the organizers were right to consider the direct effects of the project, rather than the broader influence and estuary. Judge Brett Cavano wrote that the courts should postpone the organizers on “where to draw the line” on the factors that must be taken into account. Four other conservative judges joined his opinion.
He wrote about the policy law reviews: “Simply, NEPA is a procedural examination, not a fundamental barrier,” he wrote about the reviews of the Political Law. “The aim of the law is to inform the decision -making of the agency, not a segment.”
The Court of the Court of the Court has taken steps to limit the authority of federal organizers in other cases, includingto hitIt is decades oldChevron doctrineThis made it easier for the federal government to determine a wide range of regulations.
Judge Sonia Sotomoor agreed to the result, but with narrower legal thinking. In a decision that her liberal colleagues joined, she said that the court could simply purify the road to obtain the approval of the railway by finding the council that did not need to take into account any damage caused by oil that might eventually be done on the railway line.
Judge Neil JormHe did not participate in the case after facing calls to step down on relationshipsPhilip AncerszThe billionaire in Colorado, which means ownership of oil wells in the region, can benefit from it if the project continues. Like a brush, as a lawyer in private practice, Ancerots.
This ruling comes after President Donald Trump pledged to enhance American oil and gas drilling and stay away from former President Joe Biden’s focus on climate change. The administration announced last month that it accelerates the environmental reviews of the projects required under the same law in the center of the state of Utah, which presses a process that usually takes a year or more in only weeks.
“The court’s decision gives the agencies a green light to ignore the expected consequences of their decisions and avoid confronting them,” said Samhef Sancar, the first vice president of the Earthjustice programs.
Windy Park, chief lawyer at the Biodiversity Center, said that opponents will continue to fight the Utah State project. She said: “This catastrophic decision to undermine the environmental law of the environmental provisions of our nation means that our air and water will be more contaminated, and climate crises and extinction will intensify, and people will be less healthy.”
The general partner of the project applauded the ruling. “It represents a turning point for Utah countryside – which brings safer, more sustainable and more efficient transfer options, and opening new doors for investment and economic stability,” said Keith Hitton, director of the seven infrastructure coalition in the province.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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