Utah
U.S. Supreme Court hears Uinta Basin Railway case and challenge to major environmental law
SALT LAKE CITY — The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether to rein in a major environmental law in a case involving 88-miles of a proposed railway being developed in eastern Utah.
On Tuesday, the nation’s top court heard arguments in the case brought by the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition in Utah against Eagle County, Colo., and a coalition of environmental groups who challenged the Uinta Basin Railway project.
“This is a very important moment for us for those of us that care about breathing clean air and drinking clean water,” said Deeda Seed of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs in the legal challenge against the railroad project.
The railway would be built in Utah southest of Roosevelt and stretching toward Soldier Summit. It’s designed to connect the Uintah Basin’s oil fields to Gulf Coast states for processing. When completed, the railway is expected to lead to an expansion of eastern Utah’s fossil fuel and energy development economy.
But Eagle County, Colo., and a coalition of environmental groups challenged the project and its impacts, taking the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with them and ruled that not enough consideration was given by federal agencies to the impacts of communities and the environment down the line. The Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, which represents the Utah counties that want the rail line built, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court who agreed to hear the case.
“What we’re saying is that you need to look at all of the environmental harm and that frankly the harm to the Colorado River corridor needs to be included,” Seed told FOX 13 News in an interview on Tuesday following the arguments. “And the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with us.”
The case appears to be a vehicle for a challenge to the National Environmental Protection Act and how far it can go. Paul Clement, the attorney for the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, urged the Court to set limits.
“It is designed to inform government decision making, not paralyze it,” he told the Court.
The justices peppered him with questions centered around where to draw the line. Justice Sonia Sotomayor bluntly told him: “You want absolute rules that make no sense.”
“With respect, I guess you’ll decide whether they make sense,” Clement replied.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted various federal agencies involved and “so many different environmental checks are in place on land, air, water, pollution.”
“What is NEPA adding to the substantive statutes, and how should that affect how we think about NEPA in terms of what the judicial role is with respect to enforcing NEPA?” he asked.
“As it’s currently applied in the D.C. Circuit and the Ninth Circuit, NEPA is adding a juicy litigation target for project opponents,” Clement answered.
Obviously, attorneys for Eagle County and the environmental groups disagreed.
“The impacts at issue here are reasonably foreseeable consequences of this $2 billion railway project whose entire rationale is to transport crude oil,” said their attorney, William Jay, who urged the Court to consider the broader impacts beyond an 88-mile rail line project, including oil spills and wildfires.
Utah’s Republican political leaders and the Ute Tribe are supporting the Uinta Basin Railway. The tribe has accused “Colorado elites” of threatening its economy and safety with the legal challenge.
Governor Spencer Cox “fully supports the construction of the Uinta Basin Railway, a critical infrastructure project that will help restore America’s energy independence while delivering significant economic benefits to rural Utah. Requiring agencies to engage in speculative analysis of distant downstream impacts, as the D.C. Circuit Court has done, sets a dangerous precedent that jeopardizes energy-related projects nationwide,” his office said in a statement to FOX 13 News on Tuesday.
Utah has pushed for expansion of energy development statewide, including more oil and gas production.
“We’ll always fight for energy independence and stand up for rural jobs. We hope the Court makes the right decision,” House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said in a statement to FOX 13 News.
Seed said she was worried about the impact of the Court’s decision on NEPA as well as the incoming Trump administration’s push for deregulation on projects that carry environmental sensitivities.
“We’re worried because the National Environmental Policy Act is a bedrock environmental law that protects the public interest against a rampaging industry that wants to build whatever it wants wherever it wants without consequence,” she said.
The justices are expected to issue a ruling in the case next year.
This article is published through the Colorado River Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative supported by the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air at Utah State University. See all of our stories about how Utahns are impacted by the Colorado River at greatsaltlakenews.org/coloradoriver
Jon Anderson will be charged with moving the Orem school forward following the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on campus last year.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Incoming UVU President Jon Anderson poses for a photo with his family after an event announcing his selection at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, July 17, 2026.
BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.
After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.
Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.
“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.
An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.
Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.
Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.
Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.
“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”
When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.
An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.
In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.
Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.
Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.
In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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