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WASHINGTON 鈥� The Supreme Court backed a multibillion-dollar聽oil railroad expansion proposal in Utah聽on Thursday in a ruling that scales back the use of a key environmental law and could accelerate development projects around the country.

The聽8-0 decision聽followed an appeal to the high court from backers of the project, which aims to quadruple oil production聽in a remote area of sandstone and sagebrush.

The decision will have a sweeping impact on聽National Environmental Policy Act聽reviews, environmental groups said. President Donald Trump’s administration has already said it’s working to support his January declaration of a 鈥渘ational energy emergency鈥� and his vow to boost U.S. oil and gas production.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh聽referred to the decision as a 鈥渃ourse correction鈥� in an opinion fully joined by four conservative colleagues.

鈥淐ongress did not design NEPA for judges to hamstring new infrastructure and construction projects,鈥� Kavanaugh wrote. The three liberal justices agreed the Utah project should gain approval, but they would have taken a narrower path.

The justices reversed a聽lower court decision聽that required a more thorough environmental review and restored an important approval from federal regulators on the Surface Transportation Board.

The board’s chair, Patrick Fuchs, said the ruling reins in the scope of environmental reviews that are 鈥渦nnecessarily hindering鈥� infrastructure construction throughout the country.

The case centers on the Uinta Basin Railway project, a proposed 88-mile expansion that would connect the oil-rich region of northeast Utah to the national rail network, allowing oil and gas producers to access larger markets. The state’s crude oil production was valued at $4.1 billion in 2024, according to a Utah Geological Survey report, and could increase substantially via the expansion project.

Construction, though, does not appear to be imminent. Project leaders must win additional approvals and secure funding from private-sector partners before they can break ground, Uinta Basin Railway spokesperson Melissa Cano said.

Environmental groups and a Colorado county had argued that regulators must consider a broad range of potential impacts when they consider new development, such as increased wildfire risk, the effect of additional crude oil production from the area and increased refining in Gulf Coast states.

The justices, though, found that regulators were right to consider the direct effects of the project, rather than the wider upstream and downstream impacts. Kavanaugh wrote that courts should defer to regulators on 鈥渨here to draw the line鈥� on factors to consider.

鈥淭he goal of the law is to inform agency decision-making, not to paralyze it,鈥� he said.

The court has taken steps to curtail the power of federal regulators in other cases, however. For instance, it struck down聽the decades-old聽Chevron doctrine聽that made it easier for the federal government to set a wide range of regulations.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor聽said in a concurrence that the court could have simply cleared the way for the railway approval by saying that regulators did not need to consider increased fossil fuel production tied to the project.

Justice Neil Gorsuch聽did not participate in the case after facing calls to step aside over ties to聽Philip Anschutz, a Colorado billionaire whose ownership of oil wells in the area means he could benefit if the project goes through. Gorsuch, as a lawyer in private practice, previously represented Anschutz.

The Trump administration announced last month it’s accelerating environmental reviews of projects required under the same law at the center of the Utah case, compressing a process that typically takes a year or more into just weeks.

鈥淭he court’s decision gives agencies a green light to ignore the reasonably foreseeable consequences of their decisions and avoid confronting them,鈥� said Sambhav Sankar, senior vice president of programs at Earthjustice.

Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said opponents would continue to fight the Utah project.

鈥淭his disastrous decision to undermine our nation’s bedrock environmental law means our air and water will be more polluted, the climate and extinction crises will intensify, and people will be less healthy,鈥� she said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said the ruling affirms a 鈥渂alanced approach鈥� to environmental oversight. He praised the railroad expansion as a critical infrastructure project that will help 鈥渞estore America’s energy independence鈥� and bolster the state’s rural economy.

The project’s public partner also applauded the ruling.

鈥淚t represents a turning point for rural Utah 鈥� bringing safer, sustainable, more efficient transportation options, and opening new doors for investment and economic stability,” said Keith Heaton, director of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition.

Editor’s note: Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.