Seven County Infrastructure Coalition-Rail Construction & Operation Exemption-In Utah, Carbon, Duchesne, and Uintah Counties, Utah

Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Surface Transportation Board [Docket No. FD 36284] In 2020, the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition (Coalition) filed a petition for exemption under 49 U.S.C. 10502 from the prior approval requirements of 49 U.S.C. 10901 for authorization to construct and operate an approximately 85-mile rail line connecting two termini in the Uinta Basin (Basin) near South Myton Bench, Utah, and Leland Bench, Utah, to the national rail network at Kyune, Utah (the Line). According to the Coalition, the Line would provide shippers in the Basin with a viable alternative to trucking, which is currently the only available transportation option. (Pet. for Exemption 13-15.) On January 5, 2021, the Board issued a decision assessing the transportation merits of the proposed transaction and preliminarily concluding, subject to completion of the ongoing environmental review, that the proposal meets the statutory standard for an exemption on the transportation merits. Seven Cnty. Infrastructure Coal.—Rail Constr. & Operation Exemption—in Utah, Carbon, Duchesne, & Uintah Cntys., Utah ( January 5 Decision ), FD 36284, slip op. at 8-10 (STB served Jan. 5, 2021) ( 86 FR 1564 ) (with Board Member Oberman dissenting). The Board noted that it was not granting the exemption or allowing construction to begin and that after the Board has considered the potential environmental impacts associated with this proposal and weighed those potential impacts with the transportation merits, it would is…