Late last year, Uinta Basin Railway (UBR) backers, Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, filed a 35-page motion with the Federal Surface Transportation Board (STB), asking the Board to reaffirm its original decision to approve the railway without further environmental review. But the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is not on board with the idea. The conservation group is a plaintiff in a legal battle against the train that’s been going on for five years.
It all started in December 2021, when four out of five STB members voted to approve the railway, with board chair Marty Oberman casting the sole dissenting vote. He argued that the environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from increased crude oil production in the Uinta Basin and risks to water and wildlife outweighed transportation benefits. He also questioned the financial viability of the project.
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) approved the 88-mile railroad in 2022 through a roadless area in Utah’s Ashley National Forest, which would connect the Uinta Basin oil fields to the national rail line near Price. Trains would then carry up to 350,000 additional barrels of Utah crude oil per day to refineries on the Gulf Coast, crossing Colorado and rolling along the Colorado River in the I-70 corridor.
The years-long legal battle has involved conservation groups and county and municipal governments throughout Colorado. The case has ping-ponged from one court to another.
In 2023, Eagle County sued the STB in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The court vacated the STB’s original decision. “Conservationists and Eagle County prevailed on a number of claims, including claims about upstream and downstream impacts of the railway, as well as a number of claims concerning the impacts to the Colorado River from spills and the Transportation Board’s analysis of accidents,” said Ted Zukoski, CBD’s attorney. “We also prevailed on claims involving the Endangered Species Act for failure to address impacts to fish in the river, and under the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act [ICCTA] because the board failed to address the financial status and viability of the railway.”
The appeals court decision had a ripple effect. The USFS’ approval was based on the STB’s decision. Because that decision was vacated, the USFS also withdrew its approval, stating “If the deficiencies are addressed and resubmitted for consideration, the Forest Service may issue a new decision.”
Then, in October 2024, UBR backers took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Zukoski told The Sopris Sun that only the upstream and downstream impacts of the proposed UBR were before the court. “The Seven County Infrastructure Coalition [argues] that more than that was at stake, or more than that was decided,” he said. “We argue that it wasn’t and Justice [Sonia] Sotomayor, who wrote the concurring opinion, didn’t think more than that was at stake either.”
In May 2025, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court. The appeals court handed the case back to the STB to take another look. The original STB decision from back in 2021 still stands, but Zukoski says it’s illegal and the board has to fix it.
“The STB and its Office of Environmental Analysis has to address the errors under ICCTA and the Endangered Species Act, and also under the [National Environmental Policy Act],” he explained. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will also have to review whatever renewed analysis that the STB prepares, and potentially issue a biological opinion for the impacts on the fish.”
Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and Congressman Joe Neguse (D-CD2) urged the STB in a January letter to review the project. “We urge the Board to reject the motion submitted by the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition to reaffirm the board’s previous approval of the project with a truncated review,” said the lawmakers in a press release. “Instead, the Board should engage in a thorough, rigorous evaluation of the project that includes robust public participation and a supplemental environmental impact statement that considers the project’s risks to Colorado’s communities, water, land, air and climate.”
When the STB makes its decision, the CBD will review it and take it to court if necessary. Even though the case is not back to square one, Zukoski said, it could start the same legal battle all over again. “It could go back up to the Supreme Court,” he said. Meanwhile, Politico Pro reports that Florida-based Uinta Basin Railway Holdings has hired Roger Stone as the new lobbyist for the railroad. Stone was convicted in 2019 of felony charges, including obstruction and witness tampering, for his activities around investigations into Russia’s interference with the 2016 election. President Trump pardoned Stone in 2020.