U.S. Supreme Court Limits Environmental Reviews For Infrastructure Projects

As Politico reported last week, in an 8-0 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled U.S. government agencies conducting environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) can take a more limited view of the impacts of transportation and energy infrastructure projects they are permitting.

In the case, local government and environmental groups brought a NEPA challenge to the Surface Transportation Board’s approval of an 88-mile rail line in Utah’s Uinta Basin, which seeks to connect to the national rail network and carry crude oil to refinery markets along the Gulf Coast. The board approved the project after issuing a comprehensive, 3,600 page environmental impact statement under NEPA. A federal appeals court blocked the board’s approval, however, ruling that its exhaustive analysis failed to consider the repercussions of more oil production made possible by the rail line. The court also suggested the board should have considered the potential impact of increased oil refining on Gulf coast communities thousands of miles away.

In amicus briefs supporting the Surface Transportation Board, business groups argued the Supreme Court should reject the premise adopted by the federal appellate court — which held that NEPA requires agencies to analyze the effects of upstream or downstream projects over which they do not exercise regulatory authority — and the majority of the Supreme Court agreed. “NEPA is a procedural cross-check, not a substantive roadblock,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the 8-0 decision. “The goal of the law is to inform agency decision-making, not to paralyze it.” The opinion also reins in the power of federal courts to block projects along similar grounds. “NEPA does not allow courts, ‘under the guise of judicial review’ of agency compliance with NEPA, to delay or block agency projects based on the environmental effects of other projects separate from the project at hand,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote.

Read additional analysis at this link.