Submission Number: UBR-DEIS-00501 

Received: 1/28/2021 8:14:22 PM
Commenter: Douglas Tolman
Organization: 
State: Utah

Agency: STB
Initiative: Uinta Basin Railway EIS
Attachments: No Attachments
Submission Text
Hello, My name is Douglas Tolman, a descendent of settlers who filled the Uinta Basin with cattle ranches and oil rigs. I now live 80 miles downstream from the Uinta Basin on the Green River, and fear that increased oil extraction will further disturb the delicate ecology of the Green River drainage. Despite the fact that my family heritage is built on oil and coal extraction in Eastern Utah, I have learned the science behind climate change, and how fossil fuel dependence has a very real impact on that. Knowing that the energy production market is moving towards renewables, it is also a financially unwise decision to use our tax dollars in a dying industry. Though Utah is long overdue for a railway, that should be a high-speed passenger train which connects underserved rural areas with jobs and education in urban areas.