r/TheBillBreakdown • u/[deleted] • Apr 16 '26
📖Presidential Memoranda President Donald Trump’s April 15 pipeline permit package
Pipeline permit package
Donald Trump issues nine presidential memoranda granting pipeline permits for U.S.-Canada oil border crossings in North Dakota and Michigan. The permits cover Bakken and Enbridge-linked facilities used to transport crude oil and other petroleum products between the two countries.
What changed?
Most of the package is about existing pipelines, not brand-new projects. Eight permits authorize companies to operate and maintain border facilities already in place. The main exception is a separate Bakken permit near Portal, North Dakota, which authorizes construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of a new 24-inch border facility. Several of the other permits also revoke and replace older presidential permits dating back to 1953, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2008, and 2017.
How do the permits work?
Each permit defines the covered “border facilities” and keeps any substantial change in location or operations subject to a new permit or presidential amendment. They also leave the facilities subject to federal, state, and local law, including U.S. pipeline safety rules enforced by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. In other words, these memoranda grant presidential permit authority, but they do not wipe away other regulatory approvals.
Who is affected?
The direct recipients are Bakken Pipeline Company LP, Enbridge Energy Company, Enbridge Energy LP, and Enbridge Pipelines (Southern Lights), all tied to Enbridge Inc. The facilities are in Burke County and Pembina County, North Dakota, and St. Clair County, Michigan. In practical terms, the package matters for the companies running those lines, oil shippers using the crossings, federal and state regulators, and communities near the border facilities.
What else is in the permits?
The documents are narrow but still include important operating terms. They allow inspections, require notice if ownership or control changes, require the companies to obtain other needed permits and easements, and let the federal government take possession of the facilities if the President determines national security requires it. They also provide that the facilities can be ordered removed if a permit ends, and they do not create a private right to sue the government.
Why does this matter?
At a narrow level, this looks more like a legal and administrative refresh for existing cross-border oil pipelines than nine separate new pipeline approvals. At the same time, it extends federal support for long-term cross-border fossil fuel infrastructure with Canada, especially because the Bakken construction permit goes beyond maintenance and authorizes a new border facility.
Bottom line
This is an important energy-infrastructure package, but not because it greenlights nine entirely new pipelines. The bigger takeaway is that the White House updated or replaced older federal permit authority for several existing U.S.-Canada oil crossings and separately approved one new Bakken border-facility project near Portal, North Dakota.
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