Regulators in Montana and Wyoming have opened the door for public input on a large oil pipeline proposal that would ship Canadian crude across parts of the northern Plains, starting in Phillips County, Montana, and ending near Guernsey, Wyoming. The 30-day scoping and comment period began this week as state and federal officials work through parallel reviews that assess potential environmental and community effects.
The proposal centers on the Bridger Pipeline Expansion, a 36-inch-diameter pipeline designed to span 647 miles. Developer Bridger Pipeline Expansion says the project would move about 550,000 barrels of crude oil daily, with the route including roughly 210 miles across multiple counties in eastern Wyoming—Crook, Weston, Niobrara, Goshen and Platte—before continuing to its terminal area.
Federal officials said the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will lead the review. In a BLM statement carried in the reporting, the agency said it is tasked with reviewing potential impacts across the entire project to ensure that “environmental, cultural and community considerations are fully evaluated.” The federal review process also includes contributions from other agencies, with the reporting noting that the Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will participate.
Montana officials said the project’s state process will proceed in parallel with the federal environmental review. The developer has applied to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for a “certificate of compliance” required under Montana’s Major Facility Siting Act, a step that triggers a parallel environmental review under the state’s Environmental Policy Act, according to the reporting. The reporting also notes that the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality will serve as a participating agency in the BLM review.
To collect input, officials plan a series of public meetings tied to the scoping process. The reporting said regulators intend to co-host one virtual and three in-person public meetings, with the dates to be announced later. Residents can also submit comments through an online pathway linked to the environmental review materials.
Some residents in eastern Wyoming have adopted a nickname for the proposal, calling it “Keystone Light,” according to an account cited in the reporting from WyoFile. The name is described as a nod to the canceled Keystone XL project—abandoned in 2021—which would also have transported Canadian oil-sands crude but on a larger scale, with a planned capacity up to 830,000 barrels per day and a route crossing in Montana plus portions of South Dakota and Nebraska. The reporting said President Joe Biden cited climate change concerns on the first day of his administration when he revoked a Trump-era permit for Keystone XL, which had been required for the border crossing, and it added that the Bridger Pipeline Expansion would also require a presidential permit for the international border crossing.
In describing the proposed route, the developer said it would take advantage of existing infrastructure and rights-of-way. The reporting says about half of the Montana route would be parallel to existing pipelines, and a little more than half of the 210-mile Wyoming segment would follow existing pipeline corridors. It also states that the developer owns much of that existing infrastructure, with a project description provided by the BLM saying the project would parallel Bridger-owned infrastructure for roughly 138 miles in Montana and 100 miles in Wyoming.
The proposal would also involve land managed by federal agencies along limited stretches. The reporting says the route includes about 6 miles of BLM-managed lands in northeast Wyoming and about 5 miles of Thunder Basin National Grassland, managed by the U.S. Forest Service. It also said the federal review includes additional agencies and that construction could begin by July 2027, with about 400 workers for each of four stages of development, based on a BLM planning document.
The public comment process is likely to draw scrutiny from local groups concerned about pipeline safety and past spill enforcement. The reporting says that in 2023, Bridger Pipeline and its subsidiary Belle Fourche Pipeline Company paid $12.5 million to resolve penalties tied to pipeline spills and alleged Clean Water Act and federal pipeline safety law violations. Jill Morrison, who serves on the board of the Sheridan-based landowner advocacy group Powder River Basin Resource Council, said the company’s track record and oversight concerns raise questions about whether it will “up their game” to prevent future spills.
Bridger Pipeline said it has launched an artificial leak-detection company, FlowState, to monitor its pipeline systems. The reporting says FlowState was awarded a $2 million Energy Matching Funds state grant in 2024, and it adds that True Cos., the parent company, created FlowState because it could not find a leak-detection system on the market that met its needs. Bill Salvin, a Bridger Pipeline spokesman interviewed for the reporting, acknowledged that the company has had “some instances where our pipelines have leaked” but said some leaks involved outdated practices that have since been improved industrywide. Salvin said the company wants to respond quickly when incidents happen and to learn from them, describing FlowState as part of that effort.