If you haven’t heard of the massive new tar sands pipeline proposed to transport oil from Alberta to Cushing, Oklahoma, yet, you’re not alone — and that may be by design.
The pipeline has misleadingly been dubbed in the media as “Keystone Light” due to its similarities to the now defunct Keystone XL pipeline, though a more suitable name would be “Keystone 2.0” or “Keystone XXL.” If approved, the pipeline could be capable of moving up to 1.13 million barrels of oil per day, far more than the original Keystone XL proposal. The new project also comes with a host of concerns about how it could impact the surrounding region and peoples, just as its predecessor did.
The pipeline has been segmented into three phases by U.S.-based Bridger Pipeline and Canada’s South Bow (spun off in 2024 from former Keystone XL-proponent TC Energy). The first (the so-called Prairie Connector) would carry crude oil from the Alberta, Canada, oil fields to the Montana border. The second proposed segment (dubbed Bridger Expansion) would carry the crude south through eastern Montana, to Guernsey, Wyoming. The company recently announced plans to build a third leg of the project to move the oil to refineries in Cushing, Oklahoma.
Bridger initially failed to disclose the type of oil it plans to transport, but it later confirmed what many suspected after reporters pushed for answers: this pipeline is designed to carry tar sands oil, one of the dirtiest and most environmentally destructive fuel sources on the planet.
While this pipeline has been broken into segments and branded with different names, when you piece it all together, it sure sounds a lot like an attempt to build a bigger version of Keystone XL.
The threat this pipeline poses to Indigenous Peoples and Tribal lands cannot be overstated. The proposed routes for the middle segment alone could cut through unceded hunting territory guaranteed to the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, Arapaho, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Mandan, and Arikara Tribal Nations under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. It could also cut through the “Warrior Trail” alongside Highway 212, which includes historic sites from the Black Hills War of 1876, as well as cross the Missouri River, which feeds Lake Sakakawea, the primary water supply for the Fort Berthold Reservation, home of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations. One proposed route would travel directly through the Fort Peck reservation, a critical sage-grouse habitat. Water protectors from these Indigenous Nations are raising the alarm to stop the pipeline in order to protect the land and water, treaty rights, and sacred sites.
Bridger Pipeline is a subsidiary of True Companies, which has reportedly had several significant pipeline spills at other existing facilities, including a 50,000-gallon spill into Montana’s Yellowstone River in 2015 and a 45,000-gallon spill in Wyoming in 2022. The consequences of a potential spill from this pipeline are even more severe with tar sands crude because its chemical and physical properties make it extremely difficult and costly to clean up once it enters the environment. As proposed, the middle segment of the pipeline would cross the Yellowstone, Missouri, and Poplar rivers in Montana and the Little Missouri, Belle Fourche, Cheyenne, and North Platte rivers in Wyoming. On federal lands alone, it would cross water features like streams and rivers over 150 times. This pipeline threatens potentially devastating oil spills into our vital clean water resources. We know if this project goes through, the land, water, our non-human relatives, ways of life, and future generations could be in danger. Why would we risk it all for the fossil fuel industry to profit?
The Trump administration issued a cross-border permit for the pipeline in April without ever completing an environmental analysis, consulting with impacted Tribes, or informing the public about the type of oil this pipeline will transport. But Bridger still needs several state and federal permits before it can move forward with this massive pipeline. Indigenous, conservation, and community groups are joining forces to ensure the risks of this pipeline are exposed and that the law is followed.
If agencies fail to properly assess the potential impacts on the environment or meaningfully obtain free prior and informed consent from impacted Tribes, we’ll see them in court. Outside of the courtroom, we’re marshalling the same sort of resistance we garnered from communities who united against Keystone. And we need to speak up urgently. This moment is critical.
The Trump administration has already signaled that it is willing to limit public engagement to potentially force this project through. In the Federal Register notice for the pipeline’s middle segment, 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,” despite the fact that project documents indicate Bridger is still gathering information about critical aspects of the project.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality also appears to be putting its finger on the scale in favor of industry. The agency granted an undisclosed waiver to the project that appears to have allowed the company to omit required information from its project application, and appears to have done so without the public notice or public hearing, as required by law. At recent public meetings across Montana and Wyoming, agencies also failed to allow for oral comment opportunities, amounting to tabling opportunities for fossil fuel industry representatives.
We have a right to know about the true impacts of this pipeline and weigh in on how it will impact our communities.
If we know one thing about the Trump administration, it is that it will go to significant lengths to put the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists before the people and our environment. We ultimately defeated Keystone XL, but Keystone 2.0 could be just as menacing. There’s nothing “light” about this new pipeline proposal. The project should concern anyone who cares about our waterways, Indigenous communities, endangered species, public health, and the climate. This pipeline is a potential disaster waiting to happen.
It is clear that we have a fight ahead of us. It took years of political pressure, organizing, and multiple rounds of litigation to defeat Keystone XL. We did not put in years of work on behalf of our communities to simply allow the Trump administration and its allies in state governments to rubberstamp Keystone 2.0. It is time for us to get organized once again and time is of the essence with this fast-tracked project. We have another tar sands pipeline to kill.
Krystal Two Bulls is executive director of Honor the Earth and Anne Hedges is executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center.
