President Donald Trump granted a key approval on Thursday for a major new oil pipeline from Canada into the United States, a project dubbed 'Keystone Light' due to its similarities to the contentious Keystone XL pipeline that was blocked by the Biden administration. The three-foot-wide Bridger Pipeline Expansion would carry up to 550,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada through Montana and Wyoming, where it would link with another pipeline.
Project Details and Approvals
The pipeline requires additional state and federal environmental approvals before construction can begin. Company officials expect to start construction next year. At peak volume, the 650-mile pipeline would move two-thirds as much oil as the Keystone XL pipeline, which was partially built before President Joe Biden canceled its permit on his first day in office in 2021, citing climate change.
'Slightly different from the last administration. They wouldn't sign a pipeline deal. And we have pipelines going up,' Trump said after signing the approval for the pipeline to cross the border between Saskatchewan and northeastern Montana.
Background and Controversy
Trump in his first term approved the Keystone XL project in 2020 despite concerns from Native American tribes about possible spills and from environmental groups about fossil fuels' contribution to climate change. Its cancellation by Biden frustrated Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after Alberta invested more than $1 billion in the project.
Sometimes called 'Keystone Light,' the Bridger Pipeline Expansion would not cross any Native American reservations. More than 70 percent would be built within existing pipeline corridors and 80 percent on private land, Bridger Pipeline LLC said in a statement. The line would carry various grades of crude, including from Canada's oil sands region, to be exported or refined in the US, company spokesperson Bill Salvin said.
Permit and Product Scope
The permit from Trump also authorizes other petroleum products including gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and liquified petroleum gas. Salvin said including those fuels keeps the company's options open, but it remains focused for now on crude oil.
Bridger Pipeline could avoid a reversal by a future administration if it is able to complete its project before Trump leaves office. It hopes to start construction in the fall of 2027 and finish it by late 2028 or early 2029. Trump's term ends on Jan. 20, 2029.
Safety and Environmental Concerns
Bridger Pipeline and other subsidiaries of True Company have been responsible for several major pipeline accidents, including more than 50,000 gallons of crude that spilled into the Yellowstone River in 2015, fouling a Montana city's drinking water supply; a 45,000-gallon diesel spill in Wyoming in 2022; and a 2016 spill that released more than 600,000 gallons of crude in North Dakota, contaminating the Little Missouri River and a tributary. Subsidiaries of True agreed to pay a $12.5 million civil penalty to settle a federal lawsuit over the North Dakota and Montana spills.
Salvin said Bridger Pipeline has since developed an AI-based leak detection system that allows it to be notified more quickly when there are problems. It also plans to bore 30 to 40 feet beneath major rivers, including the Yellowstone and Missouri, to reduce the chances of an accident. The 2015 accident occurred on a line constructed in a shallow trench at the bottom of the river.
'We designed the pipeline with integrity and safety in mind. We have emergency response plans should something happen where oil happens to get out of the line, which is fairly rare,' Salvin said.
The Casper, Wyoming-based company operates more than 3,700 miles of gathering and transmission pipelines in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.
Opposition from Environmental Groups
Environmental groups opposed to the project include the Montana Environmental Information Center and WildEarth Guardians. 'The biggest concern we see right now is the concern inherent in all pipeline projects which is the risk of spills,' said attorney Jenny Harbine with the environmental law firm Earthjustice. 'Pipelines rupture and leak. It's just a fact of pipelines.'
