Supreme Court Likely to Rein in Environmental Impact Studies (1)

The US Supreme Court seemed almost certain to limit the scope of environmental impact studies, but how the court will do so remains unclear.

The justices at argument on Tuesday overwhelmingly suggested that the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit went too far when it required federal regulators to look at potential effects on communities on the Gulf Coast in considering whether to approve a railway in Utah.

Regulators are required to analyze environmental impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which is intended to assist federal agencies in their decision making.

The question for the justices ...