Jay Johnson recently spoke with the media about the firm’s successful representation of Seven County Infrastructure Coalition and Uinta Basin Railway, LLC before the United States Supreme Court in a pivotal case that reshapes the scope of federal environmental review. His comments were featured in Politico, Yahoo News, Inside Climate News (also featured in Grist), Bloomberg Tax, and Bloomberg Law.
In a ruling that limits the expansive application of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Supreme Court sided with Seven County and UBRY, agreeing that courts should not halt infrastructure projects based on factual questions about the agency’s findings. The Court also emphasized that environmental review should center on the specific project at issue, not potential future projects. The decision reopens the door for the responsible construction of the Uinta Basin Railway, an 88-mile rail line that will connect Utah’s Uinta Basin to the national freight rail network.
Venable’s legal team, which has represented Seven County from the earliest stages of the project, successfully petitioned the Supreme Court for review after the DC Circuit adopted an overly broad reading of NEPA. The Supreme Court’s decision reversing the DC Circuit should streamline future infrastructure approvals and limit unnecessary environmental review.
The case marks a pivotal shift in how federal environmental reviews are applied to large-scale infrastructure projects and should influence future regulatory and judicial actions nationwide.