Coalition Comes Out Against Proposed Bridger Pipeline Expansion
A coalition of indigenous, conservation, and community groups have sounded the alarm on the proposed Bridger Pipeline Expansion, which could transport more tar sands oil per day than the controversial, and now defunct, Keystone XL project if approved.
The project would be capable of providing up to 1.13 million barrels of oil per day. Opponents claim tar sands oil is one of the world’s dirtiest and environmentally destructive fuel sources. The Bridger Pipeline Expansion would revive parts of the Keystone XL Pipeline and the company notes it plans to find a partner to build a subsequent line to either Cushing, Oklahoma or to the Gulf Coast.
“Indigenous People exist, we are still here, and we will be the most impacted by this pipeline. One of the proposed routes for the Bridger pipeline travels directly through the Fort Peck reservation, threatening Indigenous Peoples and our future generations. We know that if this project goes through, our land and our water are in danger. Our future is in danger. Our treaty rights and sacred sites must be defended,” said Krystal Two Bulls, an Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne organizer from Lame Deer, and executive director of Honor the Earth. “Water protectors are standing up again, like we have always done against all those who threaten Mother Earth. We fought against the Keystone XL pipeline proposed for these very same lands and won back in 2021. We will fight and win again against the Bridger Pipeline.”
On Thursday, April 30, President Trump issued the required cross-border permit for the pipeline before completing an environmental analysis, consulting with impacted tribes, or even informing the public about the type of oil this pipeline will transport. The permit issued by Trump does not impact a separate Bureau of Land Management and Montana Department of Environmental Quality scoping period and permitting processes currently underway.
Organizations then submitted comments as part of that scoping period raising significant concerns and noted that the Trump administration has been noncommittal about providing additional community engagement opportunities. In the project’s Federal Register notice, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management states that it “may provide additional opportunities for public participation consistent with the NEPA and DEQ MEPA processes, including a 30-day comment period on the Draft EIS.” And yet, project documents indicate that Bridger is still gathering information about critical aspects of the project. For example, Bridger has not yet disclosed the locations of the temporary and permanent access roads that would be developed. Nor has it confirmed to regulators that the pipeline would carry heavy, sour crude from Canada’s tar sands which would pose heightened environmental risk.
While the BLM and Montana Department of Environmental Quality recently hosted several public meetings across Montana and Wyoming, the groups also blasted the agencies for failing to allow for oral comment opportunities at the events, which amounted to tabling opportunities for fossil fuel industry representatives.
The pipeline would cross the Missouri River which feeds Lake Sakakawea, the primary water supply for the Fort Berthold Reservation, home of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. Downstream, the Missouri River is a primary water supply for the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes. It would also cross the West Fork of the Poplar River, immediately upstream of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, as well as the Belle Forche and Cheyenne Rivers, which surround the Black Hills – a sacred place to the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Nations.
