21 replies to this topic

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Railway Age,  12/16/21

 

STB OKs Uinta Basin Railway Project

 

 

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Dec. 15 approved the construction and operation of the Uinta Basin Railway in Utah; STB Chairman Martin Oberman dissented.

 

Approval is subject to the STB Office of Environmental Analysis’ (OEA) final recommended environmental mitigation measures, with minor changes.

 

In August, OEA issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project, identifying the 88-mile Whitmore Park Alternative as the environmentally preferred route, one of three analyzed.

 

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The Colorado Sun, Denver, CO  1/10/22
 

Trains will carry “waxy crude” oil through Colorado every day after Utah approves new railway

 

The Surface Transportation Board last month approved the Uinta Basin Railway, which will push three to 10 trains of ‘waxy crude’ through Colorado communities every day.

 

 

The Surface Transportation Board’s recent approval of a new 88-mile railroad in Utah’s Uinta Basin has spiked concerns that daily trains loaded with heated crude oil will be traveling along Colorado’s river corridors.

 

“It’s a ticking carbon bomb,” said Michael Kunkel, whose Friends of Browns Canyon last summer successful campaigned to block an expedited proposal to revive train traffic on the long dormant, 220-mile Tennessee Pass Line between Gypsum and Cañon City.

 

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The Utah railroad would connect to the national rail network, allowing trains to transport “waxy crude” to Gulf Coast refineries from the Uinta Basin in northern Utah. The railroad will increase oil production in the Uinta Basin, which has been limited by the fact the viscous crude is too thick to move through a pipeline.

 

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Vail Daily, Avon, CO  2/1/22

 

Eagle County will challenge Utah rail line’s approval 

 

New line could ship crude oil next to the Colorado River through Eagle County

 

 

Eagle County officials are launching an effort to keep rail cars filled with crude oil off the rail line that runs along the Colorado River through much of western Colorado.

 

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board in December approved an application for a new rail line to run from oil fields in Utah to the national rail line that runs roughly parallel to Interstate 70 and the Colorado River.

 

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Scherr said while the Tennessee Pass line, unused since 1996, isn’t currently being considered for hauling oil, the county is concerned that the Surface Transportation Board could allow use without a broader review.

 

That seems to have been the case with the proposal to link to the line running along the Colorado to the Moffat Tunnel.

 

Eagle County Attorney Bryan Treu said the commissioners and his office believe the Surface Transportation Board made “procedural errors” in its decision.

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Related:  

Tennessee Pass Revival: It’s Complicated

[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 5/16/22

 

Builders Selected for Uinta Basin Railway

 

 

 

STB on Dec. 15, 2021 approved the Uinta Basin Railway. Its Office of Environmental Analysis last summer issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the project, identifying the 88-mile Whitmore Park Alternative as the environmentally preferred route, one of three analyzed.

 

AECOM, Skanska-Clyde Joint Venture and Obayashi Corporation have landed the final engineering and construction contracts for Uinta Basin Railway, slated to serve the mineral, energy, agricultural, construction and manufacturing industries in northeastern Utah.

 

Behind the project is the state of Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition. On May 29, 2020, it sought Surface Transportation Board (STB) authority to build and operate the line, which it said would provide Basin shippers with a viable alternative to trucking—currently the only available transportation option. In September 2020, Drexel Hamilton Infrastructure Partners, LP and the Coalition executed an agreement to advance the line, whose construction and operations would be handled by Fort Worth, Tex.-based Rio Grande Pacific Corporation (RGPC). The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation is an equity partner in the railway.

 

 

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RT&S, 7/8/22

 

First major rail project in 30 years clears final regulatory hurdle

 

 

The wheels of the Uinta Basin Railway project, which will be built to help haul oil, are being greased.

 

Construction could begin as early as next year after the U.S. Forest Service dismissed an objection to a right-of-way the agency granted through Utah’s Ashley National Forest.

 

It was the final regulatory obstacle the project faced, and in a letter Deputy Regional Forester Deborah Oakeson said the decision on the right-of-way was sound.

 

 

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[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 8/22/22

 

Report: STB Approval of Uinta Basin Railway Challenged

 

 

The Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) “inadequate” assessments of the Uinta Basin Railway project’s climate, public health and safety impacts undermine its approval of the project under the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act, according to a Colorado County and environmental groups, Law360 reports.

 

STB on Dec. 15, 2021, approved the construction and operation of the Uinta Basin Railway, which is slated to link oil and gas resources in Utah and Colorado to the national rail network; STB Chairman Martin Oberman was the sole dissenter.

 

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Eagle County, Colo., and the Center For Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and other environmental groups are now challenging STB’s project approval in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. According to the environmental groups’ Aug. 18 opening brief, “while the environmental impact statement disclosed that the rail project would be capable of hauling up to 350,000 barrels of oil a day, it failed to review the project’s reasonably foreseeable indirect effects from the significant boost in oil production from the Uinta Basin in Utah,” Law360 summarized. “The project would encourage downstream pollution and increased greenhouse gas emissions. …”

 

 

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The Denver (CO) Gazette, 4/1/23

 

Resistance to Utah oil train railroad racheting up

 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was asked to block up to $2 billion in tax-exempt bonds to finance the construction of an 88-mile-long railway in Utah. Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Rep. Joe Neguse, along with a group of more than 150 environmental organizations, sent a letter to Buttigieg voicing concerns over the extraction and use of oil from the Uinta Basin oilfields and rail safety concerns.

 

Citing the train derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio on Feb. 3 that released some 25,800 gallons of vinyl chloride,  the Center for Biological Diversity said President Joe Biden should block federal funding of the railroad for both economic and environmental reasons, according to a press release announcing the letter.

 

 

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Progressive Railroading, 4/4/23

 

Lawmakers, environmentalists call on feds to block bonds for Uinta Basin rail project

 

Three federal lawmakers from Colorado and more than 150 environmental groups have asked U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to block up to $2 billion in tax-exempt bonds that would finance an 88-mile railway in Utah.

 

In a March 28 letter to Buttigieg, U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (all D-Colo.) cited rail safety concerns related to the extraction and use of Uinta Basin oilfields.

 

The letter cites concerns over the Uinta Basin Railway project, which the lawmakers and environmental groups say would quadruple oil production in Utah's Uinta Basin.

 

 

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[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 4/5/23

 

Lawmakers, Environmental Groups Urge DOT to Reject Use of Bonds to Fund Uinta Basin Railway

 

U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), along with more than 150 environmental groups, some from as far away as New Jersey, have sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urging the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to reject the use of tax-exempt “private activity bonds” for the Uinta Basin Railway, stating that the project would “undermine President Biden’s priority of addressing the climate crisis, and harm communities through which these oil trains will travel and where this oil will be refined.”

 

Construction and operation of the new railway, which, according to the March 28 letter, is “intended to quadruple oil production in Utah’s Uinta Basin,” was approved by the Surface Transportation Board (STB) in December 2021

 

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Associated Press, 8/18/23

 

Appeals court strikes down Utah oil railroad approval, siding with environmentalists

 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A U.S. Appeals Court on Friday struck down a critical approval for a railroad project that would have allowed oil businesses in eastern Utah to significantly expand fossil fuel production and exports.

 

The ruling is the latest development in the fight over the proposed Uinta Basin Railway, an 88-mile (142-kilometer) railroad line that would connect oil and gas producers in rural Utah to the broader rail network, allowing them to access larger markets and ultimately sell to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. The railroad would let producers, currently limited to tanker trucks, ship an additional 350,000 barrels of crude daily on trains extending for up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers).

 

 

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