US EditionSupreme Court limits environmental review of major infrastructure projects
- The Supreme Court limited environmental reviews in an 8-0 ruling on May 30, 2025, backing a multibillion-dollar Utah oil railroad project.
- The ruling stems from a dispute over the Uinta Basin Railway expansion and challenges to federal regulators’ scope of impact analysis under the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act.
- The court found regulators could consider direct project effects but rejected evaluating wider upstream and downstream impacts, striking down the Chevron doctrine and curbing federal regulatory power.
- Justice Kavanaugh described the ruling as a corrective measure, emphasizing that NEPA was not intended by lawmakers to allow judges to stall infrastructure projects, while critics argue the decision will lead to greater pollution and adverse health effects.
- The decision may accelerate infrastructure projects nationally, though project leaders must still secure approvals and funding, and opponents plan to continue legal challenges to the Utah railway.
172 Articles
172 Articles
US Supreme Court narrows scope of environmental review of major infrastructure projects
The US Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s decision involving the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on Thursday, effectively narrowing the scope of the statute’s required environmental review of major infrastructure projects. The NEPA is an environmental impact review statute that was promulgated in the 1970s, along with a slew of other environmental protection statutes like the Clean Air Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1…
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Supreme Court Sharply Limits Scope of Landmark Environmental Law
The Supreme Court has sharply limited the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act, a ruling that will accelerate the development of major infrastructure projects including highways, pipelines and liquefied natural gas export terminals. The court’s 8-0 ruling on Thursday will allow federal agencies conducting environmental reviews to take a more limited view of the impacts of major transportation and energy projects. Earthjustice said in a…
Another Step Forward in Removing NEPA as a Barrier to Building
America’s infrastructure paralysis just got a much-needed nudge. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County represents more than new limits on environmental reviews. It’s another step in a long-needed course correction for a nation that has forgotten how to build. Let’s hope for more steps to come. As is unfortunately typical in many cases involving reviews under the National Environmental Pol…
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