By Brooke Larsen | The Salt Lake Tribune | Photo by Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune

The Bureau of Land Management approved the expansion of an oil transloading facility in Carbon County after an expedited review under President Trump’s “national energy emergency” declaration.

The expansion of the Wildcat Loadout Facility, which was approved Thursday, will ramp up the amount of waxy crude oil that producers can transport out of the Uinta Basin by 80,000 barrels per day.

Currently, oil tanker trucks haul 20,000 barrels of oil from the Uinta Basin down the remote, windy U.S. Highway 191 to Wildcat’s facility daily. There, the oil is transferred from trucks to rail cars that travel adjacent to the Colorado River for over 100 miles.

With the expansion, the facility will load 100,000 barrels of oil onto trains heading for the Gulf Coast each day, according to the BLM’s environmental analysis. The oil trains consist of 104 rail cars, the largest train length possible on the Union Pacific route.

This increase will also require roughly 345 oil tanker truck deliveries through Indian Canyon daily, according to BLM’s review.

“Responsible energy development plays a key role in supporting local communities and national priorities,” said BLM Green River District Manager Elijah Waters in a press release. “This project reflects our commitment to advancing critical infrastructure while ensuring careful stewardship of Utah’s public lands.”

Read more at SLTrib.com.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.