Supreme Court Curtails Sweeping Environmental Impact Studies (3)

The US Supreme Court reined in the scope of environmental impact studies and in doing so said courts must defer to agencies when considering if they’re detailed enough.

The decision Thursday reversed a lower court ruling that said regulators didn’t go far enough in considering the environmental impact that a planned rail line in Utah for shipping crude would have on Gulf Coast refining communities.

Any “environmental effects from highly regulated oil refineries along the Gulf Coast are well outside the scope of the 88-mile railroad project in rural Utah,” the 8-0 ruling authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.

The ...