Texans Against High-Speed Rail, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Transportation

In a lawsuit challenging the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA’s) approval of a “Rule of Particular Applicability” for a high-speed rail technology proposed for use in Texas, the plaintiffs included a claim under the National Environmental Policy Act that alleges that the defendants failed to consider how the potential rail project’s design would account for increasing rainfall levels resulting from climate change. The plaintiffs alleged that “every flood plain crossing, wetland area, creek crossing, and drainage swell” would be affected by increased rainfall events and that despite the project being “essentially a levee extending across 240 miles of rural countryside,” the FRA failed to disclose hydrologic impacts on properties along the route.