Trump administration fast-tracks Uinta Basin crude-by-rail expansion

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Monday approved Coal Energy Group 2 LLC’s proposal to expand the Wildcat Loadout Facility in Utah, which will be used to transfer Uinta Basin crude oil from tanker trucks to rail cars.

The proposal was approved under an accelerated 14-day environmental review process in response to a "national energy emergency" declared by President Donald Trump, BLM officials said in a press release. The Wildcat Loadout Facility will be reconfigured to accommodate new infrastructure within the current 270-acre project area. The approved project includes adding unloading areas, a tank farm and loading systems to increase project capacity to transload oil. 

Currently, oil tanker trucks haul 20,000 barrels of oil daily from the Uinta Basin down U.S. Highway 191 to Wildcat’s facility, where the oil is transferred to rail cars that travel adjacent to the Colorado River. With the expansion, the facility will load 100,000 barrels of oil onto trains that travel adjacent to the Colorado River for more than 100 miles as they make their way to the Gulf Coast, according to the BLM's environmental analysis as reported by The Salt Lake Tribune. 

The bureau gave Coal Energy the go-ahead for the expansion after a two-week environmental review with no public input, the newspaper reported. Environmental groups and some political leaders have expressed concerns.

 “The Bureau of Land Management’s decision to fast-track the Wildcat Loadout expansion — a project that would transport an additional 70,000 barrels of crude oil on train tracks along the Colorado River — using emergency procedures is profoundly flawed," U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) said in a joint statement.