Upgrades proposed or under way at three of the state’s five refineries will enable them to process three times the amount of the paraffinic-based crude, commonly called black or yellow wax petroleum, as they could six years ago.
But development will come at a cost.
Boosting production capacity could also increase certain environmental risks, based on refinery safety records over the past decades. Hundreds more oil tankers are expected to travel the 170 miles from the rich oil fields in eastern Utah to the refinery row that straddles the Salt Lake and Davis county lines, negatively impacting air quality, neighborhoods and traffic. Salt Lake Tribune
