How a fantasy oil train may help the Supreme Court gut a major environmental law

Proposed 88-mile rail line would link oil fields of remote Uinta Basin region of eastern Utah to national rail lines.

The railway would allow oil companies to quadruple production in the basin and would be the biggest rail infrastructure project the US has seen since the 1970s .

Big polluting industries, particularly oil and gas companies, hate NEPA for giving the public a vehicle to obstruct dirty development projects.

The current two -lane road from Salt Lake City crests a peak that’s almost 10,000 feet above sea level, which is too high for a train to go over.

The current railway plan calls for tunneling through the mountain, but going through it may be just as treacherous as going over it.

In July , the Supreme Court agreed to take the case to the case.

Sotomayor seemed to be alone, however, in her defense of NEPA .

The majority of the justices seemed inclined to require at least some limits to the statute.

Such a ruling would be a hollow victory for the Utah railway promoters that brought the case.

The court will issue a decision by June next year .