The Uinta Basin Railway in Utah has received preliminary approval, and if constructed, the UBR will maximize shipments of dirty tar sands oil through Colorado along hundreds of miles of the Colorado River, further threatening a critical water resource that is already under severe stress from drought and climate change.
Oil trains more than a mile and a half long would be routed through Colorado, creating additional wildfire hazards, and the added rail traffic on the Moffat Line would increase pressure to reopen the Tennesse Pass Line, sending rail traffic along 100 miles of Gold Medal trout water and through Browns Canyon National Monument.
The U.S. Forest Service can stop this misguided plan right now by denying a right-of-way through Ashley National Forest in Utah.
Colorado can’t afford oil train risks or the additional climate-altering pollution. Please contact your U.S. Senators to demand that the Forest Service deny the right-of-way permit. Construction of the UBR would allow petroleum production in Utah to increase exponentially, along with major increases in regional air pollution and U.S. climate-change emissions.
Our friends at the Center for Biological Diversity are spearheading this effort, and they’re making it easy to contact Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper to tell them you don’t want millions of barrels of dirty crude oil crossing Colorado every year. Tell them the Forest Service must deny a right-of-way through wilderness-quality lands in Utah to prevent a carbon catastrophe for Colorado and beyond. You can also let the Forest Service know that they need to stop this toxic train.
Thank for helping us protect Colorado and Browns Canyon!
