(The Center Square) – A gaggle of Western Slope lawmakers are asking the Biden management to put the brakes on a rail project within the Uinta Basin.
The letter, despatched to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, cited the new teach derailment in East Palestine, Ohio as one instance of why the Uinta Basin Railway Project must no longer transfer ahead.
The project – which might be funded with tax-exempt personal task bonds authorized by means of the federal government – would contain the cargo of crude oil from Utah thru western Colorado mountain cities and would run shut to the Colorado River and its tributaries.
“We ask that you carefully consider this project’s potential impact, including the devastating damage it could do to public health, our water resources, our environment, and our economy, when making the respective decisions charged to your departments,” the lawmakers wrote.
Citing the East Palestine derailment “and other high-profile train accidents,” the lawmakers argued {that a} spill isn’t just imaginable however most likely.
Sen. Perry Will, R-New Castle signed the letter along House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, Rep. Meghan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs, Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, and Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs.
“While we understand and support the desire to increase domestic energy supply, the potential negative impacts of this project far outweigh any economic benefit,” the letter added. “Imperiling the future of our environment and the natural resources we depend on and treasure is not a decision that should be taken lightly.”
A website for the project states that the railway would “solve the long-standing freight transportation challenges in the region by connecting to the national railway network.”
“This common-carrier railway will move goods in a safe and cost-effective way to enable economic stability, sustainable communities and enriched quality of life,” in accordance to the project website online.
The project may be antagonistic by means of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., who previous this month despatched a letter to Vilsack, announcing an oil spill “within the headwaters of the River can be catastrophic no longer most effective to our state’s water provides, natural world habitat, and out of doors game belongings, but in addition to the wider River Basin.”
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