Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado

In 2020, the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition (the coalition) (defendant), which represented seven Utah counties, applied to the United States Surface Transportation Board (the board) for approval of an 88-mile railroad in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah (the railroad project). The railroad project was intended to facilitate the transportation of crude oil from the basin to refineries in other parts of the United States. In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the board prepared an environmental-impact statement (EIS) regarding the railroad project. The EIS concluded that the project could disrupt local wetlands, land use, and recreation and could impact air pollution and animal movement around the construction site. Although the EIS noted that the increased oil drilling and refining enabled by the railroad project could have potential environmental effects, the EIS did not fully analyze those effects. The board ultimately approved the railroad project, concluding that the project’s transportation and economic benefits outweighed the environmental impacts described in the EIS. Eagle County, Colorado, and various environmental organizations (collectively, the county) (plaintiff) challenged the board’s decision in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The court found that the board had violated NEPA by failing to fully examine the railroad project’s environmental impacts, including the reasonably foreseeable impacts from the increased upstream oil drilling in the basin and downstream oil refining along the United States Gulf Coast. The court thus vacated the board’s EIS and approval of the railroad project. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.