A battle over the National Environmental Policy Act is brewing

Sneak Peek of the Week

A Hail Mary for the Uinta Basin Railway conjures a consequential fight over NEPA

A flurry of briefs filed in the past two months with the U.S. Supreme Court reveals a pending showdown over the reach of the National Environmental Policy Act. How the justices rule in the case could have sweeping ramifications for the 54-year-old legislation that safeguards natural resources.

At the center of the showdown is the 88-mile Uinta Basin Railway, which intends to connect oil fields in northeastern Utah to the national rail network so far-flung refineries can access the Uinta Basin’s waxy crude. The Surface Transportation Board in 2021 approved the railroad after conducting a two-year, 1,700-page Environmental Impact Statement review under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

The railroad would direct an additional 5 billions of gallons of Uinta Basin crude in 2-mile long trains along tracks along the Colorado River from Grand Junction to Winter Park and then through metro Denver en route to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The project has stirred vehement opposition among environmental groups, politicians and communities along the railroad, with concerns focused on spills and wildfires.

After five environmental groups and Eagle County sued in 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2023 overturned that approval, arguing the federal transportation agency should have weighed the impacts of quintupling the volume of oil rolling in heated tankers through Colorado and the climate implications of drilling, transporting and refining all that crude. (Opponents argue that refining and using the crude from the estimated 3,300 new wells in the Uinta Basin — producing as much as 350,000 barrels of the viscous, waxy crude a day — would account for about 1% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.)

The U.S. Supreme Court in June agreed to hear an appeal by the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition that is pushing the $3 billion railroad as an economic engine in seven rural Utah counties and a way to boost production of Uinta Basin crude by reducing the reliance on truck traffic.

The high court will hear oral arguments in the case Dec. 10. The main question that will be weighed is this: Does NEPA require federal agencies to consider impacts beyond the exact location of the project, which in this case involves the Surface Transportation Board studying impacts of a railroad beyond the 88-miles of track?

Eagle County, in its 61-page brief filed in October, said the railroad supporters are attempting to “dramatically remake NEPA.”

“An agency cannot ignore a particular environmental effect of its own decision merely because another agency might have some jurisdiction over that issue,” reads the Eagle County brief.

A growing chorus of Colorado’s elected officials — led by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse — have rallied in support of Eagle County.

Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction, Minturn, Avon, Red Cliff, Crested Butte and Basalt, and Boulder, Pitkin and Routt counties, as well as the 31-member Northwest Colorado Council of Governments, joined Eagle County in a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the railroad. The communities argue that NEPA and Surface Transportation Board regulations required the board “to alert western Colorado communities to the foreseeable effects of its decision coming down the line.”

“The board’s failure to adequately analyze these indisputable foreseeable impacts is a run-of-the-mill violation of NEPA,” reads the communities’ brief.

>> Click over to The Sun on Tuesday to read this story

The Outsider now has a podcast! Veteran reporter Jason Blevins covers the industry from the inside out, plus indulges in the fun side of being outdoors in our beautiful state.

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The Playground

Two very well-funded outdoor recreation businesses are collapsing

Two Colorado outdoor recreation businesses — each with tens of millions in funding — have collapsed.

The Pro’s Closet in Louisville, which has sold 46,000 used bikes since its founding by a pro mountain biker in 2006, closed its doors this month. And Future Legends, the developer of a massive sports complex in Windsor, has filed for bankruptcy as lenders and contractors file lawsuits seeking nearly $60 million for unpaid work and overdue loans.

The California-based Future Legends is about 10% finished with a plan to build two professional stadiums, 22 sports fields, hotels and a 900-bed dormitory for visiting teams on the 118-acre parcel. The company’s owners are facing dozens of lawsuits and the complex is in receivership after lenders foreclosed on a $47 million loan.

The Pro’s Closet raised more than $90 million in the past decade from investment firms and public equity sales as it peddled used and refurbished high-end bikes and components from its 137,000-square-foot headquarters in Louisville. The company — a pioneer in the bustling second-hand outdoor gear market — swifty shut down in mid-October.

The U.S. bike industry is enduring a slump in sales following the buying frenzy that cleared out bike shops during the pandemic. The bike industry saw sales grow by 41% in 2020, followed by a dip in 2021, according to Statista, which values the U.S. bike market at $8.2 billion.

Bike shops that ramped up orders following the surge in pandemic demand have seen inventories grow as sales fall. E-bike sales also are eating into traditional bike sales. Last year saw another steep decline in bike sales. In Colorado, consolidation and the declining market have seen home-grown bike brands closing doors and leaving the state.

>> Click over to The Sun on Friday to read this story

The Guide

Connecting communities to the High Line Canal

There’s a bench on the High Line Canal trail with a placard that reads: “Walking in gratitude, serenity returns.”

That’s a quote from longtime Aurora resident Debi Hunter Holen. The bench marks the spot where, on a Saturday morning in July 2020, she was beaten by a man wielding a large chunk of wood. Hunter Holen spent a long time recovering from the attack. The man went to prison. Hunter Holen still walks along the High Line Canal. And she works with the High Line Canal Conservancy on a committee that represents a 28-mile section of the 71-mile trail that traverses four counties.

She’s helping the conservancy raise money to better connect the trail with the diverse communities it winds through. With plans to plant thousands of trees along the historic canal and raise as much as $33 million for benches, signage, tree care and other improvements, Hunter Holen hopes the trail can become a refuge for the thousands of residents who live along the meandering path.

The former Aurora councilwoman plans to walk the entire trail soon, maybe taking a week to meet residents and share the respite she’s found in the tree-lined canal.

“When I walked the canal, I began to have a different viewpoint for the neighborhoods in the area,” Hunter Holen told Sun freelancer Dan England. “You experience the community as you walk. You don’t do that when you drive.”

>> Click over to The Sun next week to read Dan’s story

Founders of Eagle’s The Cycle Effect win national ESPN “Everyday Heroes” award

In 2011, Tam and Brett Donelson sparked a plan to get girls — mostly Latinas — in the Eagle River Valley on mountain bikes. Today, the couple’s nonprofit The Cycle Effect has put more than 1,000 local girls from Eagle, Mesa, Routt and Summit county schools on mountain bikes for a season of training and racing. Most of them have never ridden bikes on singletrack, reflecting a common divide between the working class and privileged pedalers found in most mountain towns.

The Donelsons were recently celebrated in Ojai, California, as Toyota Everyday Heroes at the ESPN Women + Sports Summit. The 9-year-old Everyday Heroes program celebrates people who help women and girls in local communities through sports. The Donelsons won the award — and a $15,000 grant — alongside Morgan Crawford, whose Alabama-based Moxie League offers young girls basketball and career mentoring.

The summit “was full-on,” said Brett Donelson, with panels and speakers and events filling every moment of the two-day rally. “So many amazing people.”

One question the Donelsons often get is why they chose mountain biking. The couple lives in Eagle, where a spiderweb of singletrack spins from all corners of the town. They know the self confidence and strength that comes from long grinds up tall mountains.

“We often use this analogy: We are teaching women to go up mountains and they are always longer than you think, but there’s a great view and fun downhill at the top,” Brett said. “The idea that life gives you challenges and at some point they end, often with a reward. That resonates with people even if they are not necessarily familiar with mountain biking. Everybody has had a mountain in their life and they typically say, ‘Yeah, I can relate to that.’”

The Donelsons launched The Cycle Effect as “a passion project and we didn’t really know where it was going to go,” Brett said.

The program offers free-of-charge bikes, gear, transportation, bilingual coaching and year-round training as The Cycle Effect expands to include adults and shorter, seasonal sessions for young pedalers.

Brett said he wished he could have brought along his staff and the hundreds of volunteer coaches, race organizers and mentors who have worked with Cycle Effect over the past 13 years.

“We have been so fortunate to have the response we have had to this very niche idea,” he said. “It’s a community-wide recognition that making sure our young women and the young Latinas in our communities are cared for and loved is really, really important.”

— j

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