Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration gave President Donald Trump a win Friday, green-lighting a 37-mile natural gas pipeline that the state had previously rejected.
New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation issued a key water-quality permit for Williams Companies’ proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline, an extension to the existing Transco pipeline that would run through New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The decision marked a reversal for the state agency, which denied previous permit applications from the company multiple times on environmental grounds.
The department’s approval letter said state environmental authorities “determined that the Project can comply with applicable water quality standards upon appropriate conditions.”
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The decision prompted outcry from environmental advocates, who told NOTUS earlier this year that Hochul was falling to pressure from the Trump administration.
“The pipeline proposal is exactly the same, and state and federal law is the same, so there is no legal or scientific basis for taking a 180 degree turn from the state’s past denials,” Mark Izeman, a senior attorney for environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.
In a statement following the state environmental department’s approval, Hochul suggested the decision was tied to the Trump administration’s efforts to kill renewable energy projects in New York.
“We are facing war against clean energy from Washington Republicans, including our New York delegation, which is why we have adopted an all-of-the-above approach that includes a continued commitment to renewables and nuclear power to ensure grid reliability and affordability,” Hochul said.
Hochul first expressed openness to the Williams pipeline earlier this year when she met with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum after the department issued a stop-work order for the Empire Wind project off the coast of New York. The Trump administration lifted the stop-work order after that meeting, and Hochul said she would “work with the administration” on new energy projects.
Democratic members of the New York’s congressional delegation also decried Friday’s permit approval.
“This decision regrettably disregards the science, the voices of New Yorkers, and the goals set out in our own climate law,” Rep. Jerry Nadler said in a statement. “By approving this pipeline, the state risks locking our communities into decades of unnecessary fossil fuel dependence and undoing much of the progress we’ve made toward a cleaner, safer future.”
The Department of Environmental Conservation’s letter to Williams also acknowledged that the project is not in line with New York state’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — but said the department was allowing the project to move forward because of a “reliability need.”
Hochul, who is up for reelection next year, has been criticized by political opponents amid rising energy prices and grid reliability issues across New York.
The pipeline is still awaiting a key approval from New Jersey’s state environmental department, which rejected the project on environmental grounds on multiple previous occasions.
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