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A new pipeline for Canadian crude oil has cleared an early regulatory hurdle. The Trump administration granted a border crossing permit for the Bridger pipeline last week. It's being compared to the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Biden administration blocked in 2021. Yellowstone Public Radio's Kayla Desroches reports from Montana, where the new pipeline would enter the U.S.
KAYLA DESROCHES, BYLINE: Both the Bridger pipeline and the Keystone XL line proposed before it were designed to transport tar sands oil from Alberta into the United States. President Trump's permit for the Bridger pipeline to enter the U.S. came shortly before the close of the public comment period for its environmental analysis. Bill Salvin, a spokesperson with the Bridger pipeline's Wyoming-based developer, says once constructed, it will stretch 647 miles ending at a terminal in southeastern Wyoming.
BILL SALVIN: Then a partner, who we have not decided on who that partner is going to be yet, will build a subsequent line and get that to either Cushing, Oklahoma, or down to the Gulf Coast so U.S. refineries can take advantage of that oil.
DESROCHES: The pipeline would enter the U.S. in Phillips County, Montana. Population roughly 4,000.
RICHARD DUNBAR: We're glad to hear that it's going to come through. Yeah, we're excited about it.
DESROCHES: Richard Dunbar, a Phillips County commissioner, says the pipeline would become the biggest local revenue source in property taxes, but the pipeline still needs additional state and federal permits. The developer hopes to start construction in fall of next year. One of the pipeline's potential routes could pass through the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Lance Fourstar is a member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine Tribe and a city councilman in the reservation town of Wolf Point.
LANCE FOURSTAR: This was all kind of new to me. I was hoping that it wasn't real and that this was just a rumor.
DESROCHES: Fourstar says he's disappointed by the presidential border crossing permit approval, but not surprised. Native American activists who protested the Keystone XL pipeline have been rallying to get people to comment on the Bridger pipeline's environmental analysis. Joseph White Eyes, with Honor the Earth, is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux of central South Dakota.
JOSEPH WHITE EYES: Just to have another fossil fuel, you know, company come in and try to build another pipeline on our lands is just another, you know, slap in the face, just a continuation of genocide and colonization on our people.
DESROCHES: Bridger pipeline also operates the Poplar pipeline in Montana, which in 2015 spilled 50,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River.
For NPR News, I'm Kayla Desroches in Billings, Montana.
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