In 2018 and 2019, a Utah board illegally gave nearly $28 million in public funds to an obscure public entity to launch what would be the largest railroad construction project in the United States in several decades: the Uinta Basin Railway. 

The train would carry oil, not passengers, from Utah’s Uinta Basin to distant national and global markets. This oil train railway could unlock a frenzy of new drilling and quadruple oil extraction in the basin. This would be a trainwreck for the region’s air, water, lands and wildlife. It would accelerate the already dangerous public health and environmental effects of global warming.

The project’s backers, Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, claim the multi-billion dollar railway would be a boon for local communities, but they have provided few details. They have continually failed to involve the public, including landowners in the path of the railway, in what should be a public process about how public money is being spent.

Though it remains unclear whether the Uinta Basin Railway oil train would pencil out, fueled by tens of millions of dollars from the Utah Permanent Community Impact Fund Board, which should be serving local communities instead of private oil companies, the project is being pushed full steam ahead.