New York Begins Review of Previously Rejected Pipeline Project, Renewing Controversy

A left-for-dead natural gas pipeline is getting a second chance at life in New York, where state regulators this week accepted what they said was a completed application for the project.

The first step in the formal review process is to open the application to public comment. That happened Wednesday.

The project, called the Northeast Supply Enhancement Line, is an expansion of a pipeline that extends from Pennsylvania to New York and New Jersey. Oklahoma-based natural gas company Williams resurrected the project, buoyed by executive orders from the White House aimed at boosting fossil fuel production, and by recent talks between President Donald Trump and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The completed application – the first in New York during Trump’s second term — provides what will be a closely watched test for how New York balances the president’s fossil fuel push and its own ambitious environmental sustainability deadlines.

“Building this pipeline is flatly inconsistent with New York’s nation-leading climate pollution targets,” said Mark Izeman, a senior attorney and strategist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The group was part of a lengthy legal battle to block the pipeline when it was initially proposed years ago. State officials ultimately denied Williams a permit for the Northeast pipeline project and the similarly-controversial Constitution Pipeline, citing environmental concerns. The Northeast pipeline would have to receive permits from both New York and New Jersey.

“We haven’t seen any information that these projects are any less harmful to the environment and to our climate goals than when they were originally proposed,” Izeman said.

The White House celebrated the latest step in getting the Northeast application processed, writing in a statement that natural gas pipelines “will bring cheaper energy prices for New Yorkers.”

Both pipelines are thought to have been part of Hochul’s negotiations with Trump to get a $5 billion wind farm off the coast of Long Island moving forward again after his administration issued a stop-work order on it in April.

Food and Water Watch Northern Region Director Alex Beauchamp credits the conversations between the two administrations for the pipelines’ revived push in recent weeks.

“Unquestionably, it’s about those talks,” Beauchamp said. “It’s incredibly stupid that we’re in this place, but here we are.”

Trump, who made “Drill, Baby, Drill” one of his favorite refrains during presidential campaign stops in 2024, is keen on heralding in a renaissance in fossil fuel production. He signed executive orders in May that allowed expedited permits for natural gas pipelines and called for more fossil fuel projects.

Williams cited those orders in their paperwork as the company requested the federal government to fast-track the pipeline. And National Grid, an energy delivery company, updated its long-term plans Wednesday stating that the Northeast project was necessary to meet growing demand in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island.

Ken Lovett, senior communications advisor for energy and the environment for Hochul, said the governor is focused on “improving reliability and reducing costs for New Yorkers.”

“All applications are reviewed impartially to determine potential impact and compliance with all applicable laws,” Lovett wrote in a statement.

The vague nature of ongoing conversations between Trump and Hochul over fossil fuel projects has alarmed environmental advocates.

“The so-called deal (between Hochul and Trump), whether it was real or imagined – that type of pressure should not be determining New York’s energy future,” said Katherine Nadeau, executive director for policy and programs at Environmental Advocates New York.

She continued: “Every new pipeline locks New York state into a fossil-fuel future that we cannot afford.”

Environmental advocates in New York spent about a decade fighting Williams over the pipelines, and engaged in a protracted court battle over Constitution when then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo invoked the Clean Water Act in 2020 to reject its permit, arguing that local waterways could be polluted. Williams dropped its effort to seek approval for the pipeline that same year, and abandoned the Northeast Enhancement Supply pipeline in 2024.

The Northeast pipeline would run from Pennsylvania to New Jersey through New York, while the Constitution pipeline would take natural gas from Pennsylvania to Schoharie County, and then connect to existing pipelines in New England.

Williams has estimated the average New Jersey homeowner would save $2,300 per year in home heating costs. Trump put the saving for New York families at twice that amount, speaking before a White House meeting with Hochul back in March, where he discussed his plans to revive the Constitution pipeline.

“I hope we don’t have to use the extraordinary power of the federal government to get it

done, but if we have to, we will, but I don’t think we’ll have to,” Trump said at the time, according to The Hill. “I can tell you Connecticut wants and all of New England wants it. And who wouldn’t want it?”

Hochul, meanwhile, has signaled openness to adding natural gas pipelines if they meet state and federal standards. She told reporters at a press conference in late May that there could be benefits “at a time when energy prices are through the roof.”

“I have to look at this in a different lens and will continue being committed to our climate goals,” the governor said at the time. “I believe in them, but also the realization that we need to be more open-minded and expansive.”

Williams said the Northeast project would support more than 2,400 jobs in New Jersey and 3,186 jobs regionally during construction, while generating $240 million in economic activity for New Jersey.

Opposition to the pipeline already is growing in New Jersey.

Story by Jeongyoon Han/New York Public News Network

Jeongyoon Han is a Capitol News Bureau reporter for the New York Public News Network, producing multimedia stories on issues of statewide interest and importance.

Image Credit: TheWatershed.org