Rep. Neguse Introduces Appropriation Amendments to Suspend Support for Uinta Basin Railway Project

Washington, D.C. — Congressman Joe Neguse, a member of the House Rules Committee, submitted three amendments focused on suspending the construction of the Uinta Basin Railway Project to the Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriation Bills up for consideration in the committee this week. The proposals prohibit portions of the Interior and Environment and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bills from funding the Uinta Basin Railway Project until a thorough supplemental review is conducted to fully evaluate the effects of the project on Colorado’s local communities and environment. The proposed Railway would run along the headwaters of the Colorado River, putting already scarce Western water supplies at a greater risk.

Congressman Neguse and Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) have been working with local governments and environmental groups to highlight the potential impacts the Uinta Basin Railway Project and related expansion projects could have on Colorado’s water, land, air, and climate. 

“As House Republicans charge forward on spending proposals that undermine key environmental protections for our waterways and watersheds, I am proposing amendments to halt the construction of the Uinta Basin Railway,” said Congressman Neguse. “A train derailment that spills oil into the headwaters of the Colorado River’s headwaters would be disastrous to our state’s water supplies, wildlife habitat, and public lands.” 

To suspend the construction of the Uinta Basin Railway Project, Congressman Neguse submitted the following amendments: 

• To prohibit funds from being used to issue a permit for the Wildcat Loadout Expansion Project. 
• To specify that none of the funds in the FY ‘24 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill may be used to issue rights-of-way or permits for the Uinta Basin Railway.
• To specify that none of the funds in the FY ‘24 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill may be used to finance construction of the Uinta Basin Railway. 

In September, Congressman Neguse and Senator Bennet called on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to conduct a full environmental review of the proposed Wildcat Loadout expansion project to account for the project’s potential impacts on Colorado’s water, land, air, and climate. This move came shortly after a federal court overruled the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) approval of the railway, and ordered a new environmental review of the project proposal. 

Background

In July 2022, Congressman Neguse and Senator Bennet called on the Biden Administration’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to undertake an additional comprehensive review to determine whether previous environmental and risk analyses fully considered the effects of the railway project on Colorado’s communities, watersheds, and forests. In March 2023, Congressman Neguse and Senator Bennet called on U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to suspend a decision on the Special Use Authorization for the project until a supplemental review was conducted in light of the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. That same month, Congressman Neguse, Senator Bennet and Senator John Hickenlooper called on U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to consider not providing federal financial assistance to the project, and Bennet and Neguse urged U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator KC Becker to conduct a supplemental review of the project accounting for the risks to Colorado communities, water supplies, and environment, as well as its effects on climate change. In April, the lawmakers joined Colorado elected officials in opposing the proposed project during an event on the banks of the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon.

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