Kaplan Kirsch represented Eagle County, Colorado, in challenging the federal Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) approval of the Uinta Basin Railway. The $1.5 billion project is an 88-mile rail line out of Utah’s Uinta Basin. Its purpose is to facilitate the extraction and transport of billions of gallons of crude oil. The STB’s approval would have allowed up to 18 miles of oil trains daily on an existing Rocky Mountain rail line. That line runs within feet of the Colorado River.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Eagle County’s favor in a detailed decision. The court held that the STB failed to adequately consider the project’s “significant potential for environmental harm.” That failure violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act.
The U.S. Supreme Court later reversed one portion of the D.C. Circuit’s decision. The D.C. Circuit then returned the case to the STB, where it remains pending.