oil & gas

In an 8-0 decision with Justice Neil Gorsuch recused, the court endorsed a limited interpretation of environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Waxy crude oil drawn from the Uinta Basin is at record high levels — the vast majority of the state’s 65.1 million barrels produced in 2024 — and is the driver behind Utah’s recent uptick in energy exports.

Beyond getting a multi-million dollar project on track, backers of Utah’s Uinta Basin Railway also wanted to shrink the scope of federal environmental reviews.

The case is about more than Utah’s long-fought oil train project. It’s become a test case, with many interested parties, over the future of environmental review.

Grouse numbers plummeted in recent decades because of drilling, disease and other pressures.

A lower court judge has already thrown out the fossil fuels case. But the plaintiffs want the Utah Supreme Court to reinstate it.

On Monday, the nation's highest court said it will review an appeals court ruling that overturned the approval issued by the Surface Transportation Board for the Uinta Basin Railway. Arguments will be in the fall.

The Biden administration is moving to let conservationists lease government land for restoration. It's part of an effort to make conservation an “equal” to other uses of public lands such as drilling and livestock grazing.

The Interior Department rule finalized Friday raises royalty rates for oil drilling by more than one-third, to 16.67%, in accordance with the sweeping 2022 climate law approved by Congress.

The Bureau of Land Management will tighten limits on gas flaring on federal lands and require energy companies to improve methods to detect methane leaks that add to greenhouse gas pollution.

The decision follows an August U.S. appeals court ruling that struck down a critical approval involving the Uinta Basin Railway. The proposed 88-mile railroad line would connect oil and gas producers in rural Utah to the broader rail network and larger markets.

The ruling is the latest development in the fight over the proposed Uinta Basin Railway, an 88-mile railroad line that would connect oil and gas producers in rural Utah to the broader rail network.