Submission Number: UBR-DEIS-00406 -- Oral Comment at Public Meeting 

Received: 12/3/2020 12:00:00 AM
Commenter: James Robinson
Organization: 
State: 

Agency: STB
Initiative: Uinta Basin Railway EIS
Attachments: No Attachments
Submission Text
Yes, hello.· This is James. Can you hear me?

[pause]

Thank you.· I don't think I'll need that much time.· I'd like to echo the comments of Reed Page.· I agree as a resident of the Uinta Basin currently involved in an industry not related to fossil fuel exploration.· I see a benefit for having rail services in the basin to increase our
economic diversity in the long run.

I do understand that in the short term fossil fuel growth will increase as that is one of the major driving factors for getting the railway started out here in the basin.· But I look forward to the opportunity to grow different industries in the basin in the long run to a period of time when we move away from our dependance on fossil fuel exploration as the primary economic driver in the basin.

As the saying, I've heard out here several times, we live and die by the price of crude in the basin.· So I look forward to seeing that be less true. Not that I don't support all industry in some regards, but I -- I would also like to remind everybody that the amount of heavy truck traffic that is currently moving through the basin also contributes to particulate emissions.· And the engines on diesel trains are highly efficient and very clean as compared to most freight-moving trucks.

That's all I have to say.· Thank you very much.