Group wants to use taxpayer money to bring Utah oil railroad controversy to the Supreme Court

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Hat tip, SCOTUSblog

WHAT WE'RE READING
The morning read for Friday, February 2
By Ellena Erskine
on Feb 2, 2024 at 10:26 am

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles, commentary, and other noteworthy links related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Friday morning read:

• Did Trump commit insurrection on Jan. 6? The Supreme Court could decide. (Patrick Marley, The Washington Post)
• How lawyers in the Trump ballot case are training for the Supreme Court arguments (Joan Biskupic, CNN)
• Visa, Mastercard ask U.S. Supreme Court to fix ‘rampant confusion’ on class certification (Alison Frankel, Reuters)
• Group wants to use taxpayer money to bring Utah oil railroad controversy to the Supreme Court (Anastasia Hufham, The Salt Lake Tribune)
• ‘Criminal for existing’: US’s unhoused still fear sweeps as supreme court to take on shelter case (Rick Paulas, The Guardian)

Posted in Round-up

Recommended Citation: Ellena Erskine, The morning read for Friday, February 2, SCOTUSblog (Feb. 2, 2024, 10:26 AM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/02/the-morning-read-for-friday-february-2/

Utah taxpayers may have to foot the bill for Supreme Court battle over beleaguered oil railway

The proposed Uinta Basin Railway has already been shot down by courts over environmental issues.


(Rick Bowmer | Associated Press) A train transports freight on a common carrier line near Price, Utah on Thursday, July 13, 2023. The Uinta Basin Railway, a proposed 88-mile oil railroad that would connect to the country's broader rail network, has been shot down by courts over environmental issues. Supporters want to take the issue to the highest court in the land.

By Anastasia Hufham | Feb. 2, 2024, 1:00 p.m.| Updated: 10:37 p.m.

The courts have dealt the Uinta Basin Railway several blows in recent months, but Utah’s oil-producing counties aren’t giving up on the project. On Wednesday, its backers said they want to take the battle to the highest court in the land — and asked for $750,000 from the general fund to do so.

“This treads all over states’ rights and interstate commerce,” Keith Heaton, executive director of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, told an appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday. The coalition, which represents seven counties in eastern Utah, is the public partner for the oil-moving railroad. ... “We think we have a very good case before the Supreme Court,” he continued.

The Uinta Basin Railway would connect Utah’s remote, oil-rich Uinta Basin to the broader rail network, including an existing rail line that runs along the Colorado River. By making it easier for the region’s waxy crude oil to reach refineries on the Gulf Coast, the railroad would triple oil exports from the Uinta Basin.

Many of the Uinta Basin’s top oil producers are located out of state. For example, Finley Resources, the company that also owns the state’s busiest oil terminal outside of Helper, Utah, is owned by Jim Finley from Houston, Texas.

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