NEPA and the Uinta Basin Railway was a focus of several speakers at day 2 of the Uintah Basin Energy Summit on Thursday. Mark Michel, co-founder and managing partner at the DHIP Group, spoke first about the project and the bright future he sees for this area as the rail becomes a reality. Michel emphasized that NEPA, short for the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, has been used to stranglehold and thwart progress in the United States, saying opponents have been using NEPA to give death by a thousand paper cuts and kill projects like the rail. Michel said it’s no coincidence that the Uinta Basin Railway will be the first railroad built in 50 years when NEPA was passed roughly 50 years ago. Jay Johnson spoke in detail on NEPA and what the U.S. Supreme Court decision about the Uinta Basin Railway given earlier this year means for the future of NEPA. Johnson served as counsel for the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition in the Supreme Court case. As background, Johnson shared that before deciding to approve the Uinta Basin Railway project in 2021, the Surface Transportation Board prepared a 3,600 page Environmental Impact Statement. Johnson explained that while the Supreme Court only hears about 2% of the cases presented to it, they saw the larger issue with NEPA review that the Uinta Basin Railway represented and took on the case. Ultimately, the Justices ruled unanimously in favor of the arguments for the railway, paving the way for what Johnson called the New NEPA. The Justices emphasized that NEPA is not to be used as a “blunt and haphazard tool employed by project opponents”. Instead, agencies must act quickly in response to project applications, limiting the process to 2 years and 150 pages which is a stark contrast from the lack of time limit and thousands of pages that were previously common. The Justices also emphasized that judicial review must be deferential and the Environmental Impact Statement should be seen as only one component in the final decision on potential projects. Johnson concluded by emphasizing that the Uinta Basin Railway is moving forward and that this case has changed NEPA for everyone going forward.
