“Throwing Away 10 Years of Effort” – Previously Rejected Constitution Pipeline May See Revival Under Federal Fracking Push

Note: This article has been updated to included that on August 28, 2025 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has reissued the certificate order for Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE). Click here to download the copy of the official order.

Environmental advocates and farmers in New York state are working to stop the construction of the Constitution Pipeline that would bring fracked gas from Central Pennsylvania into Wright, New York, west of Albany.

The coalition Stop the Constitution Pipeline is focusing their efforts on stopping one of three pipelines that would run through New York state. Constitution and the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) are two previously rejected projects that are being proposed by the Oklahoma-based Williams Companies. The company originally proposed the project in 2012 that would run through Chenango, Broome, Delaware, and Schoharie counties.

Now, with renewed pressure from the Trump administration’s energy agenda and signs that Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration may be softening its stance, opponents fear the project could get a green light.

Anne Marie Garti, attorney, environmental activist, and one of the founders of Stop the Constitution Pipeline, remembers being at a meeting in May 2012 at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Delaware County where farmers were being encouraged to allow the company to build the pipeline on their land. The company had pre-filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), but the citizens had their own concerns about the request.

“Their land would be taken through eminent domain, and people who live in Upstate New York hate those words. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican,” said Garti. “ This was for some multi-billion dollar corporation to come in and make a profit off of their land. They only saw it as a negative for themselves. It would hurt their land. And their land is everything to them.”

Between 2014 and 2021, Stop the Constitution Pipeline brought the case against FERC into the courts. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied William’s request for a Water Quality Certification in 2016 and the denial was upheld by the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017.

Even after these rejections, Williams tried to appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and FERC submitted waiver orders in 2019 and 2020 that Stop the Constitution Pipeline fought against. After Williams abandoned the project in 2020, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals vacated FERC’s orders.

Now, there are many unanswered questions about where, when, and how the pipelines will be built. Williams has not submitted an official request to FERC for Constitution but has for NESE, which would run through New York Bay and had also been previously rejected due to water quality concerns. However, after the end of a comment period on August 16, 2025, the project is being pushed through. On August 28, 2025, FERC reissued the certificate order for NESE.

A spokesperson for Governor Hochul said that no agreement has been made to build the pipelines but has indicated she would approve them if they met state and federal regulations.

According to Garti, farmers along the route of the proposed pipeline have not even received official confirmation that there may be construction on their land.

“ All I know is that this pipeline was not stopped for political reasons. It was not stopped because of climate change. It was stopped because of water quality impacts,” said Garti. “ I’ve requested documents from the DEC and haven’t gotten them yet. When DEC files a notice of complete application, then we’ll find out more. But we’re very much in the dark. We’re preparing to fight the fight, but it’s not going through the usual process.”

Image: Anne Marie Garti speaks out against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approving the Constitution Pipeline at a press conference on Thursday Feb. 18, 2016 in Albany, N.Y. (Photo Credit: Michael P. Farrell of The Times Union. Used with permission by Phillip Pantuso)