United States President Donald Trump granted a key approval for a major new oil pipeline from Canada into the United States that’s been dubbed “Keystone Light” over its similarities to a contentious project blocked by the Biden administration.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the approval comes after years of advocacy from her government, The Canadian Press reports. Smith, in a April 30 social media post, also pointed to the signing of a Canada-Alberta energy agreement last year and Ottawa’s decision to abandon its oil and gas production cap.
“This means Alberta producers will be able to produce more of the oil that the world needs. It’s incredible to see that work already paying off with announcements like this,” said Smith. “The U.S. is our most important trading partner and we will continue to deliver energy to help secure North American energy dominance.”
The three-foot-wide (1 metre) Bridger Pipeline Expansion, a joint venture of Calgary-based South Bow and U.S.-based Bridger, would carry up to 550,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta through Montana and Wyoming, where it would link with another pipeline.
The pipeline needs additional state and federal environmental approvals before construction, which company officials expect to start next year. Environmentalists hope to stop the project over worries that the pipeline could break and spill.
At peak volume, the 1,050-kilometre pipeline would move two-thirds as much oil as the better-known Keystone XL pipeline that got partially built before President Joe Biden, citing climate change, canceled its permit on the day he took office in 2021.
“Slightly different from the last administration. They wouldn’t sign a pipeline deal. And we have pipelines going up,” Trump said after signing his approval for it to cross the border between Saskatchewan and northeastern Montana.
Trump in his first term approved the Keystone XL project in 2020 despite concerns from Native American tribes about possible spills and environmental groups about fossil fuels’ contribution to climate change. Its cancellation by Biden frustrated Canadian officials, including Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, after Alberta invested more than $1 billion in the project.
Sometimes called “Keystone Light,” the Bridger Pipeline Expansion would not cross any Native American reservations.
More than 70% would be built within existing pipeline corridors and 80% on private land, Bridger Pipeline LLC said in a statement. The line would carry various grades of crude, including from Canada’s oil sands region, to be exported or refined in the U.S., company spokesperson Bill Salvin said.
The permit from Trump also authorizes other petroleum products including gasoline, kerosene, diesel and liquified petroleum gas. Salvin said including those fuels keeps the company’s options open, but it remains focused for now on crude oil.
Bridger Pipeline could avoid a reversal by a future administration if it’s able to complete its project before Trump leaves office. It hopes to start construction in the fall of 2027 and finish it by late 2028 or early 2029, Bridger spokesperson Bill Salvin said.
Trump’s term ends Jan. 20, 2029.
Bridger Pipeline and other subsidiaries of True Company have been responsible for several major pipeline accidents including more than 240,000 litres of crude that spilled into the Yellowstone River and fouled a Montana city’s drinking water supply in 2015, a 45,000-gallon diesel spill in Wyoming in 2022 and a 2016 spill that released more than 2.7 million litres of crude in North Dakota, contaminating the Little Missouri River and a tributary.
Subsidiaries of True agreed to pay a $12.5 million civil penalty to settle a federal lawsuit over the North Dakota and Montana spills.
Salvin said Bridger Pipeline in the years since the Yellowstone spill developed an AI-based leak detection system that allows it to be notified more quickly when there are problems. It also plans to bore 9 to 12 metres beneath major rivers including the Yellowstone and Missouri to reduce the chances of an accident. The 2015 accident occurred on a line that was constructed in a shallow trench at the bottom of the river.
“We designed the pipeline with integrity and safety in mind. We have emergency response plans should something happen where oil happens to get out of the line, which is fairly rare,” Salvin said.
The Casper, Wyoming-based company operates more than 5,950 kilometres of gathering and transmission pipelines in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.
Environmental groups opposed to the project include the Montana Environmental Information Center and WildEarth Guardians.
“The biggest concern we see right now is the concern inherent in all pipeline projects which is the risk of spills,” said attorney Jenny Harbine with the environmental law firm Earthjustice. “Pipelines rupture and leak. It’s just a fact of pipelines.”
This Associated Press story was published April 30, 2026. The Energy Mix added a file from The Canadian Press.
