Comment EI-30030
Received or sent (printed as 7/11/2019)
To: the Surface Transportation Board From: Paul Smith Hello, Air pollution in the Uinta Basin has already reached dangerous levels due to oil and gas development. By quadrupling oil extraction in the region, the railway would exacerbate this problem. The extraction and combustion of four times as much oil from the Uinta Basin would threaten our ability to avoid the most disastrous effects of climate change by staying under 1.5°C warming. Fossil fuel development requires large amounts of water. Increased oil development unleashed by the Uinta Basin Railway would threaten the region's water supply. New oil train traffic will create increased inconvenience, air pollution, and risk of derailment in the communities through which the trains travel. If the railway is constructed, but recoverable oil reserves in the Uinta Basin are exhausted before it is paid off, taxpayers could be left to cover the cost. Committing funds to constructing the Uinta Basin Railway is precluding efforts to transition away from boom-and-bust fossil fuel economies "which are susceptible to volatile global markets" and towards more stable, local, clean, sustainable, and just economies. Sincerely, Paul Smith
Submitted by: Paul Smith · Salt Lake City, UT
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-36284/comment/EI-30030 · back to the docket sheet