Wyoming
Regulators seek public input for massive Montana-Wyoming oil pipeline proposal
by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile
State and federal officials are seeking public comment on the proposed Bridger Pipeline Expansion project to carry Canadian crude from the border in Phillips County, Montana, to a terminal near Guernsey.
The massive 36-inch-diameter pipeline would span 647 miles and move about 550,000 barrels of crude oil daily. The proposed route includes about 210 miles across Crook, Weston, Niobrara, Goshen and Platte counties in eastern Wyoming, according to developer Bridger Pipeline Expansion. The company is a subsidiary of Casper-based Bridger Pipeline LLC, which owns a network of oil pipelines, including the Belle Fourche and Butte pipelines that connect North Dakota, Montana and eastern Wyoming oilfields to the Guernsey storage and interconnect hub.
Bridger Pipeline is owned by True Cos., which has had several significant pipeline spills, including a 45,000-gallon diesel spill in eastern Wyoming in 2022 and an incident that spewed more than 50,000 gallons of Bakken crude into the Yellowstone River in Montana in 2015.
The U.S. Bureau of Management is the lead federal regulatory authority “to review potential impacts of the entire project to ensure environmental, cultural and community considerations are fully evaluated,” according to a BLM press release. The company has also applied to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for a “certificate of compliance” required under the state’s Major Facility Siting Act, which triggers a parallel environmental review under Montana’s Environmental Policy Act.
The 30-day public scoping and comment period initiated this week will help both federal and Montana officials identify potential impacts and alternatives. The agencies will co-host one virtual and three in-person public meetings, to be announced at a later date (check here for updates), they said.
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality “will serve as a participating agency” in the BLM’s review, according to the department.
You can learn more about the environmental review for the project here, and choose the “participate now” tab to submit a comment.
Keystone Light?
Some locals in eastern Wyoming refer to the project as “Keystone Light,” a Niobrara County rancher told WyoFile. The name, borrowed from a beer, is a nod to the notion that the Bridger Pipeline Expansion would help fill the industry’s aspiration for the Keystone XL oil pipeline project abandoned in 2021.
Amid major opposition and protests, President Joe Biden — on his first day in office — cited his plans to address climate change by revoking a Trump-era permit for Keystone XL, which was required for the border crossing. The Bridger Pipeline Expansion will also require a presidential permit for the international border crossing, according to the BLM.
Similar to the Bridger Pipeline Expansion, Keystone XL would have transported Canadian oil-sands crude, but was larger — designed for up to 830,000 barrels per day. Its proposed route also differed, crossing in Montana and spanning portions of South Dakota and Nebraska.
One major advantage of the Bridger project, according to company officials, is that the Canada-Montana-Wyoming route follows many existing rights-of-way. About half of the route in Montana is parallel to existing pipelines, and a little more than half of the 210-mile route in Wyoming follows existing pipeline corridors, according to a project description provided by the BLM.
Additionally, the developer owns much of that existing infrastructure: “The Project would parallel Bridger‐owned infrastructure for roughly 138 miles in Montana and 100 miles in Wyoming.”
The route includes about 6 miles of BLM-managed lands in northeast Wyoming, as well as about 5 miles of Thunder Basin National Grassland, managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The federal review includes the Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Construction could begin by July 2027 and would employ about 400 workers for each of four stages of development, according to a BLM planning document.
Health and environmental concerns
In 2023, Bridger Pipeline and its subsidiary Belle Fourche Pipeline Company paid $12.5 million to resolve penalties related to a series of pipeline spills and alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and federal pipeline safety laws.
The company’s track record, combined with allegedly lax oversight by state regulators, is cause for concern, said Jill Morrison, who serves on the board of the Sheridan-based landowner advocacy group Powder River Basin Resource Council.
“They’ve had a lot of spills and breaks,” Morrison told WyoFile. “Are they going to up their game to be more on top of ensuring we don’t have spills and breaks like other pipelines?”
For its part, Bridger Pipeline says it has launched an artificial leak detection company, FlowState, that monitors its pipeline systems. FlowState was awarded a $2 million Energy Matching Funds state grant in 2024.
Parent company True Cos. created FlowState because it couldn’t find a leak-detection system on the market that satisfied its needs, “so we built one,” Bridger Pipeline spokesman Bill Salvin told WyoFile.
“We have had some instances where our pipelines have leaked — that’s simply a fact,” Salvin said, adding that some of the company’s leaks were related to outdated practices that have since been improved industrywide. “Every one of those incidents is terribly unfortunate. That’s how we view it: We don’t want any [spill] incidents.
“What’s most important to us,” Salvin continued, “is when those incidents happen, that we respond very quickly and with everything we have, and that we learn from them so they don’t happen again. And that’s why we’ve got FlowState today.”
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
Related
DUBOIS, Wyo. — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department recently announced that, after consultation with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, it successfully captured and relocated an adult male grizzly bear on April 25.
A release from Game and Fish says that the grizzly was captured for cattle depredation on private land in Park County. In cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the Shoshone National Forest, the grizzly was relocated to the Wiggins Fork drainage, approximately 19 miles south of Dubois, Wyoming.
The release notes that grizzly bears are relocated in accordance with state and federal law and regulation, and Game and Fish is required to update the public whenever a grizzly bear is relocated.
“Grizzly bear relocation is a management tool large carnivore biologists use to minimize conflicts between humans and grizzly bears,” the release states. “Bears that are considered a threat to human safety are not relocated. In some cases, a bear may be removed from the population if it cannot be relocated successfully.”
The release says that capture is necessary when other deterrents or preventative options are exhausted or unattainable. Once the animal is captured, all circumstances are taken into account when determining if the grizzly should be relocated. If relocation is deemed necessary, a site is determined by considering the age, sex and type of conflict that the bear was involved in, as well as potential human activity near the location.
“Grizzly bears are only relocated into the recovery zone or adjacent areas,” the release states. “With any relocation, Game and Fish consults with appropriate agencies to minimize the chance of future conflicts and maximize the relocated grizzly bear’s survival.”
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department continues to stress the importance of the public’s responsibility when it comes to bear management and the importance of keeping all attractants — including food, garbage, horse feed and birdseed — unavailable to bears. Reducing attractants to bears reduces human–bear conflicts and, in some cases, relocation.
For more information on grizzly bear management and reducing the potential for conflicts, visit the Bear Wise Wyoming web page.
Related
The annual Wyoming-Montana All-Star basketball series celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer. The State of Wyoming released its rosters for the 2026 event, which is on Friday, June 12, at the Pronghorn Center in Gillette. The series will move to Lockwood High School in Billings, MT, on Saturday, June 13. The girls’ games will start at 5 p.m., followed by the boys’ games at 7 p.m. both nights.
WYOMING ALL-STAR BASKETBALL PLAYERS 2026
This year is the 50th for the boys’ series and the 29th for the annual girls’ series. They did not play in 2020. The Wyoming girls broke a 16-game losing streak against Montana in 2025 after an 81-75 victory in Billings. Montana holds a 42-14 advantage in the series. In the boys’ series, Montana swept the Wyoming boys last summer, 102-90 and 98-73. They lead the all-time series, 69-29.
The Wyoming girls’ squad is highlighted by all-state award winners and five college commitments. The boys’ roster features players who earned multiple all-state honors, and four players have already committed to playing basketball at the collegiate level.
As the 50th anniversary approaches, organizers are preparing a series of commemorative events to celebrate the legacy of this historic rivalry and showcase the incredible talent of Wyoming’s young basketball stars.
Read More Boys Basketball News from WyoPreps
Wyoming-Montana All-Star Basketball Series Girls Recap 2025
Wyoming-Montana All-Star Basketball Series Boys Recap 2025
Wyoming-Montana All-Star Basketball Preview 2025
Wyoming Rosters for Wyoming-Montana All-Star BB Series 2025
WYOMING-MONTANA GIRLS BASKETBALL ALL-STAR GAMES 2024
WYOMING GIRLS ALL-STAR BASKETBALL GAME INTERVIEWS 2024
WYOMING-MONTANA BOYS BASKETBALL ALL-STAR GAMES 2024
WYOMING BOYS ALL-STAR BASKETBALL GAME INTERVIEWS 2024
WYOMING-MONTANA ALL-STAR BASKETBALL PREVIEW 2024
3A-4A Wyoming HS Girls Basketball All-State 2026
3A-4A Wyoming HS Boys Basketball All-State 2026
1A-2A Wyoming HS Boys Basketball All-State 2026
3A-4A Wyoming HS Boys Basketball All-Conference 2026
1A-2A Wyoming HS Boys Basketball All-Conference 2026
3A-4A Wyoming HS Girls Basketball All-Conference Players in 2026
1A-2A Wyoming HS Girls Basketball All-Conference Players in 2026
WyoPreps 3A-4A Girls State Basketball Scoreboard 2026
WyoPreps 1A-2A Girls State Basketball Scoreboard 2026
WyoPreps 3A-4A State Basketball Scoreboard 2026
WyoPreps 1A-2A State Basketball Scoreboard 2026
The 2026 rosters feature 10 girls and 10 boys
Wyoming Girls Roster:
Elizabeth Needham – Cheyenne Central (signed with LCCC for basketball)
Cashlynn Haws – Cheyenne East (will serve a mission in the Philippines)
Sydney Simone – Cody (signed with Carroll College for volleyball)
Erica Wilson – Pinedale (signed with Northwest College for basketball)
Camryn Wagner – Sheridan (attending Univ. of Utah)
Jaylin Mills – Sundance (signed with Northwest College – basketball & volleyball)
Ashtyn Ketchum – Thunder Basin (attending UW)
Reece McGrath – Thunder Basin (attending UW)
Addy Rouse – Thunder Basin (attending Nova Southeastern Univ.)
Chaney Reish – Tongue River (signed with Northwest College – basketball & volleyball)
Wyoming Boys Roster:
Jack Andela – Campbell County (signed at Carroll College for basketball)
Collin Roberts – Douglas (signed with Northwest College for basketball)
Carter Alvar – Kelly Walsh
Mason Eager – Kelly Walsh
Owen Walker – Lovell (serving a mission)
Gavin Patik – Natrona County
Nate Miner – Sheridan (signed with Rocky Mountain College)
Cooper Lancaster – Star Valley
Cody Bomengen – Thermopolis (signed at Gillette College)
Trypp Burtsfield – Thunder Basin
Six of the eight state championship teams during the 2026 high school season are represented on the girls’ and boys’ teams. On the girls’ roster, 4A champ Cheyenne East, 3A champ Cody, and 2A champ Sundance have players involved. For the boys, it’s 4A champ Sheridan, 3A winner Lovell, and 2A champ Thermopolis.
Nine of the 10 Wyoming girls selected earned all-state awards during the 2026 high school season, and four of them will be playing collegiate basketball this fall. One will be playing volleyball. Eight of the ten Wyoming boys chosen also received all-state honors earlier this year. One more was named all-conference.
Wyoming’s head coaches in 2026 are Liz Lewis (Women’s Team) and Shawn Neary (Men’s Team). They are the current head coaches at Gillette College. Lewis led the Pronghorns to a 24-11 record in the 2025-26 season. They won the Region IX Women’s Basketball Postseason Tournament and reached the NJCAA DI Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament. Neary guided the Gillette men to a 13-15 record in the 2026 season.
Wyoming-Montana Girls All-Star Basketball
Wyoming-Montana Girls All-Star Basketball
Gallery Credit: Frank Gambino
Wyoming-Montana Boys All-Star Basketball
Wyoming-Montana Boys All-Star Basketball
Gallery Credit: Frank Gambino
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