A train of tanker cars travels the tracks along the Colorado River near Cameo on May 16, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
To keep the Uinta Basin Railway project “going forward,” the state should shell out $750,000 in taxpayer funds so the group behind the project can make its case to the U.S. Congress, or even the U.S. Supreme Court.
That’s according to Keith Heaton, executive director of the Seven Canyons Coalition, who presented to an appropriations committee on Wednesday warning that the project needs funding to stay alive amid a legal challenge from western Colorado and environmental groups.
“We think we have a very good case before the Supreme Court, we think we have a good case before the United States (Congress), and worst case scenario is we can always go back and re-do the environmental impact statement,” Heaton told lawmakers during an Infrastructure and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee.
The request was sponsored by Utah Sen. Ron Winterton, R-Roosevelt, a staunch supporter of the project.