Montana Backtracks on Illegal Waiver for Bridger Pipeline Construction

Montana Backtracks on Illegal Waiver for Bridger Pipeline Construction

Bridger Pipeline must include additional information in tar-sands pipeline application after challenge by Montana residents

Contacts

Carter Carino, Earthjustice, [email protected]

Derf Johnson, MEIC, [email protected]

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has revoked a previously undisclosed waiver that would have allowed Bridger Pipeline Expansion to omit important environmental and economic data from the company's application to construct a tar sands oil pipeline through eastern Montana. DEQ granted the waiver to Bridger in February but reversed course after two Montanans, Derf Johnson and Wade Sikorski, submitted affidavits challenging the agency's decision over violations of Montana law and the DEQ's own administrative rules.

Bridger's waiver request, submitted to DEQ in January 2026, asked the agency for permission to omit certain financial information and baseline environmental data from its application to obtain a Certificate of Compliance under Montana's Major Facility Siting Act. Without that Certificate, Bridger cannot construct its proposed pipeline. The waiver allowed Bridger to omit crucial information that would have helped regulators and the public understand whether the project was financially viable and how the proposed pipeline would impact communities and the environment along potential routes, which Bridger argued was irrelevant to the project.

"We are glad that DEQ did the right thing, and we will be there to make sure the agency's actions match its words," said Derf Johnson, deputy director of the Montana Environmental Information Center. "This information will be critical for Montanans to better understanding the myriad social and environmental impacts posed by the construction of this pipeline."

After initially approving Bridger's request, DEQ has now revoked the waiver and is requiring Bridger to submit all required information. Going forward, DEQ has informed Bridger that it will not deem the company's application complete until the agency has received and reviewed all required information. Bridger has been rushing to push the project forward towards construction to try and complete it prior to the end of the current administration, when the cross-border permit issued by President Trump in April could be reconsidered by a new administration. Canadian developer South Bow, who plans to build a connecting pipeline segment, has said that construction will only begin if the company is sure that a revocation will not halt the project. The statement referenced President Biden's cancellation of the now defunct Keystone XL pipeline in 2021 after significant opposition from environmental and Indigenous groups.

The proposed Bridger pipeline segment would be part of a larger, multi-leg project that, if constructed, would transport oil from tar sands in Alberta, Canada to oil refineries in Cushing, Oklahoma. The project, dubbed Keystone 2.0 due its many similarities with the Keystone XL pipeline, would carry tar sands oil, one of the world's dirtiest and most environmentally destructive fuel sources, across major rivers, tributaries, and recreational and agricultural lands. The Montana segment could carry more oil than Keystone XL, up to 1.13 million barrels per day, to Guernsey, WY, and could cut through lands significant to Tribal Nations and Montanans. The consequences of a spill from such a pipeline would be devastating.

"If the Bridger pipeline is going to be transporting tar sands from Canada, it isn't just an environmental disaster; it's dumb," said Wade Sikorski, a rancher whose land would be crossed by a power line providing electricity to the proposed pipeline. "Tar sands oil takes unusually large amounts of energy to extract, transport, and refine. In comparison, wind and solar are much more efficient at producing the energy we need. If the Bridger pipeline is going to transport tar sands oil, we need to discuss how inefficient tar sands oil is at delivering usable energy."

DEQ's waiver revocation is just the latest setback for Bridger, who is now attempting to rewrite history by claiming that it never requested a blanket waiver of "the alternatives analysis" or asked DEQ to "refrain from considering alternative routes." However, the "Completeness Review" of Bridger's original application, completed by DEQ, tells a different story. There, the agency noted that Bridger's application had been exempted from providing information relating to alternative routes because of the now-revoked waiver.

"We are glad to see DEQ reverse course and revoke these waivers," said Lars Phillips, senior attorney with Earthjustice's Northern Rockies Office in Bozeman. "We will be watching this process closely. If either DEQ or Bridger attempts to side-step Montana law again, we will see them in court."

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