Proposed Bridger Pipeline Creating Debate

A proposal to build a 36inch diameter pipeline to move Canadian oil to refineries and markets in the U.S. with notable similarities to the contentious Keystone XL pipeline has officially landed before state and federal agencies.

The Bureau of Land Management has opened public comment on the Bridger Pipeline, which would traverse nine counties in Montana to allow a Canadian oil producer to transport about 550,000 barrels of Canadian oil per day into “multiple U.S. delivery points.” The preferred route stretches from north of Malta to an intersection with an existing terminal in Guernsey, Wyo. It would follow existing pipelines through much of that stretch.

In planning documents, the Bureau of Land Management describes the Bridger Pipeline as creating a “significant and meaningful investment in the U.S. energy economy.” The agency, which administers land along some sections of the pipeline’s projected route through Montana and Wyoming, aligns with President Trump’s January 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to streamline permitting for energy projects.

But environmental groups warn that the proposal is suspiciously similar to the Keystone XL project that garnered more than a decade of intense pushback from tribes wary of the potential for water contamination and climate groups opposed to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with excavating and burning tar sand oil. Keystone XL would have cut across tribal land and water supplies to facilitate the movement of approximately 830,000 gallons of tar sands oil per day.

“Its an incredibly damaging way to extract oil; we’re talking about strip-mining for oil, basically,” Montana Environmental Information Center deputy director Derf Johnson said of tar sands oil extraction in an interview this week with Montana Free Press. “Climate scientists often refer to it as a ‘climate bomb’ in terms of the potential greenhouse gas emissions.”

If its project is approved, Bridger Pipeline would build eight new pump stations along the new 647-mile route that appears to align with a project Canadian company South Bow is pursuing on the other side of the U.S.-Canada border. A more fulsome analysis of the anticipated effects on water, wildlife and soil, as well as cultural and archaeological resources, is anticipated later in the spring.

The project would need a presidential permit issued by the U.S. Department of State for the border crossing. The presidential permit for Keystone XL proved to be a key sticking point for that project. Three administrations weighed in on Keystone XL, putting the project on a permitting pendulum that was both dramatic and predictable. In 2021, President Biden canceled the presidential permit required for the border crossing after his predecessor, President Trump, reversed President Obama’s denial of the permit. Several months after Biden nixed the permit, TC Energy scrapped the project — but not before some construction had begun on the Canadian side of the border.

The BLM is taking comment on the proposal through May 1 on its e-planning website. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality, which is evaluating the project through the lens of state-specific environmental regulations, is hosting three public meetings on the proposal scheduled later this month. The first is in Glasgow on April 14, followed by a second in Miles City on April 15 and a virtual meeting on April 16.