Locator: 48713B.
Uinta Basin Railway: finally, some adulting in the room. And it was unanimous. Link here. Also, reported in The New York Times. This has to be a big story if it's being reported by TNYT.
The U.S. Supreme Court has given the green light to Utah’s Uinta Basin Railway project, backing a narrower interpretation of environmental review laws and potentially clearing the path for a major expansion in oil transport capacity.
In a unanimous decision Thursday, the justices reversed a lower court ruling, slamming it for what they described as an overly expansive and intrusive interpretation of environmental law. The line would link the Uinta Basin’s oil fields—tucked deep in northeastern Utah’s sagebrush terrain—to the national rail network, unlocking access to Gulf Coast and West Coast refineries.
At the heart of the case was how far federal agencies must go under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to evaluate ripple effects—like emissions from oil refining or increased drilling—when considering infrastructure projects.
Writing for the court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh affirmed that federal agencies have discretion to weigh environmental impacts as they see fit, pushing back on calls for broader reviews that include downstream effects like refining emissions or increased oil consumption.
“Simply stated, NEPA is a procedural cross-check, not a substantive roadblock. The goal of the law is to inform agency decision-making, not to paralyze it,” Justice Kavanaugh said in the ruling.
OPEC. Link here.
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Back to the Bakken
WTI: $60.94.
Active rigs: 33.
Five new permits, #41964 - #41968, inclusive:
- Operators: Hunt Oil (4); Petro-Hunt
- Fields: Parshall (Mountrail); Tioga (Mountrail)
- Comments:
- Petro-Hunt has a permit for a Lovdahl well, SESE 32--158-94,
- to be sited 221 FSL and 1244 FEL;
- Hunt Oil has permits for four Oakland wells, NWW 17-154-98,
- to be sited 353 FNL and 780 / 870 FWL.
Six permits renewed:
- CLR: Berlain, Patent Gate oil field (2); Olympia, Brooklyn oil field (2); and, Charleston, Brooklyn oil field (2).
