Supreme Court leans toward Utah oil railway plan, but may not make broad environmental ruling

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed to favor a Utah oil railroad expansion in arguments on Tuesday, but appeared more skeptical of putting strict new limits on a key national environmental law.

The justices were weighing a multibillion-dollar project that could quadruple oil production in the remote area of sandstone and sagebrush. Backers of the project asked the justices to get the project back on track and urged them limit the scope of environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act to speed up development.

The case centers on the Uinta Basin Railway, a proposed 88-mile (142-kilometer) expansion that would connect oil and gas producers to the broader rail network, allowing them to access larger markets. The court’s conservative-majority court has taken other steps to curtail the power of federal regulators, including striking down the decades-old Chevron doctrine that made it easier for the federal government to set a wide range of regulations.

But key conservatives like Chief Justice John Roberts questioned how the railway backers' proposed limits might affect the environmental review process.