The federal Surface Transportation Board recently began work on an Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed Uinta Basin Railway intended to send Utah crude oil to out-of-state markets.
The railway is a pet project of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition which is mis-using $27.89 million in public money that is supposed to be used to mitigate impacts from fossil fuel extraction, not promote more extraction.
Boosters see this as a way to jump-start a moribund fossil fuel industry. At the end of 2019 there were only four rigs drilling for oil in the Uinta Basin. If the railway is ever built it is expected to start a drilling frenzy and prop up a fossil fuel-dependent economy in the Uinta Basin for years to come.
Stop the Uinta Basin Railway: stopuintabasinrailway.com
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This is an excerpt from our March EnviroNews column. View the full article here.