Supreme Court narrows scope of environmental reviews

[Zorro]

Source: Washington Post

The decision centered on a controversial rail line in Utah that would carry billions of gallons of oil.

The Supreme Court on Thursday narrowed the scope of government-required environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects, overturning a lower-court block on a controversial rail line in Utah that would carry billions of gallons of oil.

An array of challengers spent years battling over the 88-mile stretch of track that would connect the remote Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah to national rail lines, allowing the extraction of more waxy crude from one of the nation’s largest oil fields.

The case was closely watched because it became a proxy battle over how far federal agencies may go in assessing the environmental impact of highways, pipelines and other projects before deciding whether to approve them.

Seven local counties and oil interests say the project would boost the region’s economy, which has been hampered by the lack of transportation options in a mountainous region the size of Maryland.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/29/utah-rail-environmental-review-supreme-court/

[elleng]

1. Agrees with and slightly modifies Chevron, it appears.

Kavanaugh wrote. “Courts should afford substantial deference and should not micromanage those agency choices so long as they fall within a broad zone of reasonableness.”