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Several justices indicated that a federal agency had complied with a federal law by issuing a 3,600-page report on the impact of a proposed railway in Utah.

The Supreme Court seemed prepared on Tuesday to rule that a federal agency had done enough to consider the environmental impact of a proposed 88-mile railway in Utah. Such a ruling could limit the scope of environmental reviews required by federal law in all sorts of settings.

The proposed railway would connect oil fields in the Uinta Basin in northeast Utah to a national rail network that runs next to the Colorado River and then to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

The Surface Transportation Board, a federal agency that regulates rail transportation, approved the Utah project after conducting a review that yielded a 3,600-page report. Environmental groups and a Colorado county sued, saying the report had not taken account of some ways in which the railway

Keep reading this article on The New York Times Energy & Environment.

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