New York Paves the Way for Natural Gas Pipeline Favored by the White House

On Friday, New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) approved the permits for the construction of the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Pipeline, which would bring fracked natural gas from Pennsylvania to Brooklyn and Queens. The fossil fuel infrastructure project has been a source of controversy for many years, having been rejected by the same state agency three times between 2018 and 2020 due to projected environmental impacts. New York State passed a groundbreaking climate change law in 2019 which set the goal of reducing emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

While much opposition to the project relates to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions the pipeline would bring – which some estimates indicate could be the equivalent of millions of extra cars on the road – there is also a great deal of concern surrounding the impact that the pipeline’s construction will have on the Raritan and Lower New York Bays separating Staten Island and Long Island.

Denizens of the Big Apple’s so-called “forgotten borough” have benefited from the results of a decades-spanning effort at cleaning up the bay, as dolphins, seals, and whales can now be spotted in an ecosystem once choked off by pollution and toxins. Construction of the pipeline will involve dredging up the bay’s sediment where harmful chemicals like mercury, dioxins, and PCBs.

Republican Staten Island President Vito Fossella, who was endorsed by President Trump, came out against the pipeline last September: “In terms of where we’re standing, I think they were right in 2019 when they said, ‘why are we doing this and disturbing all these sediments?’”

In a press release announcing the approval of the project, the DEC stated that it is “requiring a range of environmentally protective conditions in the NESE Water Quality Certification,” including that the pipeline’s constructor “implement a Dredge Management Plan that limits contaminants from being suspended in the water column and details adaptive management techniques.” The DEC also states that the company building the pipeline, Williams Transco, will pay $23.5 million with the goal of “minimizing and mitigating impacts to critical resources,” i.e. fish and mollusks along the seabed.

Elected leaders across the city, many of whom have already declared their opposition to the NESE pipeline, are not happy with the state environmental agency’s ruling. “DEC’s decision to approve the dirty, expensive, unnecessary Williams NESE pipeline is a mistake that will harm NYers,” Brooklyn State Assemblymember Emil Gallagher posted on X. “We’re facing an urgent climate crisis, and the cost of delivering gas continues to rise. NYers will pay for this in higher utility costs and dirtier waters.”

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams stated that the pipeline “has been shown again and again to carry devastating climate impacts and health issues, to say nothing of rate increases this project will demand for customers already facing an affordability crisis.” New Yorkers will be on the hook for the cost of construction through increased rates to National Grid, the energy company behind the new infrastructure, which has also admitted to rate hikes that it claims will level off in the long-term.

The about-face regarding the thrice-rejected pipeline began in April, when the Trump administration shut down the construction of a long sought-after wind farm off the coast of Long Island. The project was revived after Governor Kathy Hochul met with the Trump administration a month later, leaving many, including the CEO of the wind farm company, to believe that a gas-for-wind trade had been made between Albany and the White House.

President Trump lambasted Governor Hochul on social media earlier this week for moving too slowly on the pipelines. “We need to govern in reality,” Hochul said in defending today’s approval. “We are facing a 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.”