The Firm represented Eagle County, Colorado, in successfully challenging the federal Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) approval of an 88-mile rail line intended to facilitate the extraction and transport billions of gallons of crude oil out of Utah’s Uinta Basin. The STB’s approval of the $1.5 billion rail project would have allowed the addition of up to 18 miles of trains hauling oil each day on an existing rail line through the Rocky Mountains within feet of the Colorado River.
In a definitive and detailed ruling, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the STB failed to adequately consider the project’s “significant potential for environmental harm” in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act. On remand from the Supreme Court, which reversed one portion of the Court of Appeals’ decision, the Court of Appeals remanded to the STB, where the matter is currently pending.