BLM to conduct expedited review of project to boost oil transport out of Uinta basin
The US Interior Department is accelerating a plan to boost crude oil transportation capacity out of Utah’s Uinta basin.
Coal Energy Group 2 LLC’s proposed plan involves expanding the Wildcat Loadout Facility, a key transfer point for moving Uinta basin crude oil to rail lines that transport it to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said the expedited review is consistent with President Donald Trump’s directive to finish environmental assessments within 14 days and issue a more comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement in 28 days as part of his energy emergency declaration. BLM will not accept public comments on the proposal.
Environmental reviews under the National Energy Policy Act (NEPA) typically take months or years.
The Trump administration has worked this year to weaken the bedrock environmental standard by changing the way agencies implement and interpret the law. The Council on Environmental Quality, the agency responsible for implementing NEPA, rescinded NEPA implementing regulations effective Apr. 11.
The Wildcat Loadout Facility could compete with the proposed Uinta Basin Railway that would extend about 85 miles from two terminus points in the producing basin to an existing Union Pacific Railroad Co. rail line near Kyune, Utah, potentially quadrupling production from the basin.
The US Supreme Court in May ruled in favor of the railroad in a decision that scaled back NEPA by asserting that agencies were not required to analyze the environmental effects of other, separate projects, such as upstream oil drilling or downstream refining when reviewing a project like the Uinta Basin Railway.
The Wildcat Loadout Facility proposal involves amending the existing right of way to increase crude oil transloading capacity. The modification would alter the site layout and add infrastructure such as oil tanker truck unloading racks, oil storage tanks, a vapor combustion unit, railway car loading racks, and a motor control unit.
About the Author
Cathy Landry
Washington Correspondent
Cathy Landry has worked over 20 years as a journalist, including 17 years as an energy reporter with Platts News Service (now S&P Global) in Washington and London.
She has served as a wire-service reporter, general news and sports reporter for local newspapers and a feature writer for association and company publications.
Cathy has deep public policy experience, having worked 15 years in Washington energy circles.
She earned a master’s degree in government from The Johns Hopkins University and studied newspaper journalism and psychology at Syracuse University.