Washington, D.C. —

Numerous groups filed amicus briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of environmental and public health groups in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, which concerns the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The amici include:

• A group of states led by Colorado
• Former high-ranking officials of federal agencies that make, build, and implement federal projects
• The Howard Law School Civil Rights Clinic, discussing how NEPA gives groups like environmental justice and tribal communities a voice in federal planning
• Legal scholars from the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University Law School
• Members of Congress, led by Representative Raúl Grijalva and Senator Ed Markey, who have and will continue to exercise their constitutional authority to shape NEPA as needed to respond to policy debates
• Local Colorado communities that would face harm from Uinta Basin waxy crude trains as they traverse the Rocky Mountains on the way to the Gulf. Among these groups is the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments, an association representing local governments from across the political spectrum
• Former White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) officials including those who have worked for five Republican and two Democratic Presidents. They argue that the Railway’s interpretation of NEPA conflicts with the understanding they developed of the law based on their long experience with it.
• The Constitutional Accountability Center, addressing the value of adhering to longstanding understandings of federal statutes as the Court itself has emphasized

The amici represent broad and varied interests that will help the Supreme Court understand the legal and practical consequences of undoing the ruling below, which required the Surface Transportation Board to consider important environmental effects before approving an 88-mile railway that would transport waxy crude oil from the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah through the Colorado Rockies to Gulf Coast refineries. The case considers the scope of NEPA.

This month, environmental and public health groups filed a brief with the Supreme Court. The Court will hear arguments on the case on Tuesday, Dec. 10.