In a decisive move that signaled a sharp pivot in American energy policy, President Donald Trump on Thursday cleared a primary hurdle for a massive oil artery stretching from Canada into the American heartland—a project already being colloquially branded as “Keystone Light.”
The moniker stems from the project’s striking resemblance to the ill-fated Keystone XL, the lightning-rod venture that President Joe Biden scrapped on his first day in office. This new iteration, officially known as the Bridger Pipeline Expansion, is a three-foot-wide steel vein designed to pulse up to 550,000 barrels of crude daily from the Canadian border through Montana and Wyoming, eventually feeding into existing domestic networks.
At full capacity, the 650-mile line would transport roughly two-thirds the volume of the original Keystone XL. For Trump, the signing was as much about domestic production as it was about political contrast.
“Slightly different from the last administration,” Trump remarked after authorizing the border crossing between Saskatchewan and northeastern Montana. “They wouldn’t sign a pipeline deal. And we have pipelines going up.”
The ghosts of energy battles past loomed large over the announcement. During his first term, Trump greenlit the original Keystone XL in 2020, over the fierce objections of Indigenous tribes and climate advocates. When Biden later revoked the permit, citing the existential threat of climate change, it sparked a diplomatic chill with Ottawa. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canadian officials were left reeling after the province of Alberta had already sunk more than $1 billion into the half-finished project.
Seeking to bypass the specific controversies that sank its predecessor, Bridger Pipeline LLC has drafted a route that avoids Native American reservations entirely. According to company statements, 80% of the expansion will sit on private land, with more than 70% of the steel laid within existing infrastructure corridors. While its primary cargo will be various grades of Canadian crude—including heavy oil from the sands region—the permit also grants the company the flexibility to transport gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and liquified petroleum gas.
Company spokesperson Bill Salvin noted that while the focus remains on crude, the broad permit “keeps options open.”
However, the clock is the company’s most formidable opponent. To insulate the project from a potential “regulatory whiplash” should a future administration take the helm, Bridger aims to break ground in autumn 2027 and reach completion by late 2028—narrowly beating the Jan. 20, 2029, expiration date of Trump’s current term.
Despite the presidential nod, the path forward remains cluttered with required state and federal environmental permits. Waiting in the wings are groups like the Montana Environmental Information Center and WildEarth Guardians, who view the project as a ticking ecological time bomb.
The track record of Bridger’s parent company, the Casper, Wyoming-based True Company, provides plenty of ammunition for skeptics. The firm’s subsidiaries have been linked to several high-profile disasters, including a 2015 breach that dumped 50,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River, fouling the drinking water of a Montana city. Other incidents include a 600,000-gallon spill in North Dakota in 2016 and a 45,000-gallon diesel leak in Wyoming in 2022. These failures eventually led to a $12.5 million federal civil penalty.
Salvin insists the company has learned from its scars. Since the Yellowstone disaster, Bridger has implemented an AI-driven leak detection system designed for rapid-response alerts. Furthermore, instead of laying pipe in shallow riverbed trenches—the flaw that caused the 2015 spill—the company plans to bore 30 to 40 feet beneath the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers.
“We designed the pipeline with integrity and safety in mind,” Salvin said, emphasizing that while they have emergency response plans ready, such leaks are “fairly rare.”
But for those who have spent decades fighting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure, corporate assurances ring hollow.
“The biggest concern we see right now is the concern inherent in all pipeline projects, which is the risk of spills,” said Jenny Harbine, an attorney with Earthjustice. “Pipelines rupture and leak. It’s just a fact of pipelines.”