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The Association of American Railroads and Edison Electric Institute (EEI) recently filed a brief with the Eighth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals asking the court to conduct another hearing on Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad Corp.'s (DM&E) $2 billion Powder River Basin plan.

AAR and EEI requested that the court reconsider its decision requiring the Surface Transportation Board to determine any potential environmental impacts of DM&E-delivered coal after its consumed by users.

The decision could make the STB "engage in projections about possible environmental impacts that are far beyond the charter of that agency to predict or address, and that would wrongly substitute for existing federal and state clean-air act programs," AAR and EEI officials said in the brief, according to a prepared statement.

STB has no authority to seriously consider alternatives affecting projects outside the range of the board's statutory duties — especially in such areas as air quality, which is heavily regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and state entities, AAR and EEI officials believe.

The National Industrial Transportation League also sent the appellate court a brief requesting a rehearing. The court's decision was "an untenable expansion of federal agency duties under the National Environmental Policy Act," which could negate transportation innovation and harm the environmental-review process, NIT League officials believe.