Williams Companies Inc., a natural gas pipeline developer, is waiting on New York and New Jersey to approve water quality permits so it can break ground on a project the two states have been blocking for years.
What’s different this time? Donald Trump is president.
Environmental groups seeking to stop new natural gas infrastructure have long relied on blue states to help their cause. That calculus is shifting, advocates say. Democratic governors, contending with Trump’s crackdown on renewable energy, are showing more of a willingness to accept natural gas projects.
“It’s the same pipeline, the same risks to water quality that the state found were unacceptable last time around. Really, the only difference is that Trump is in the White House and wants to build a pipeline,” said Alex Beauchamp, the northern region director for the environmental advocacy group Food and Water Watch, which has been at the forefront of the opposition to the project since the developer first proposed it in 2017.
Williams’ proposal is for the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline, a 37-mile extension to an existing pipeline that would run through New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Williams received a key federal approval to proceed with the project in 2019, but was denied state-level water quality permits in New York and New Jersey multiple times between 2018 and 2020.
After resubmitting a request for the pipeline this year and receiving federal approval this month, Williams is waiting for the same water quality permits that posed a barrier in previous years. This time, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has signaled that she’s open to it.
Hochul denied that she made a formal deal with the Trump administration. But Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum applauded Hochul’s “willingness to move forward on critical pipeline capacity” after meeting with her in May, and the White House said in a statement to Politico that Hochul “caved” on the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline and another pipeline proposal from the same developer.
Ken Lovett, Hochul’s senior communications adviser for energy and environment, said in a statement to NOTUS that “the only commitment the Governor made is to work with anyone on new energy projects that meet the legal requirements under New York law.”
“As the White House rejects any new permitting of offshore wind projects and Republicans in Congress cut billions in subsidies for renewable energy, we’d hope these elected officials and advocates would join the Governor in pushing an all-of-the-above approach to ensure we keep the lights and heat on for New Yorkers while also prioritizing affordability and strong economic development,” the statement said.
Hochul met with Burgum after the administration halted work on Empire Wind, an offshore wind farm in New York, with little explanation. The stop-work order on the Empire Wind project was lifted on the same day as the meeting, and Hochul said in a statement that New York “will work with the Administration and private entities on new energy projects.”
The federal government is pushing to dismiss a lawsuit from an anti-offshore-wind group seeking to halt construction on Empire Wind again, suggesting an interest in maintaining the project in exchange for forthcoming natural gas infrastructure.
“I think the various attacks and hurdles that the Trump administration has set forth on clean energy is part of the context that we’re now finding ourselves in,” Chris Casey, the New York utility regulatory director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told NOTUS.
Environmental advocacy groups have long accused the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — which approved about 500 pipelines between 1999 and 2021 and blocked only two — of being a “rubber stamp” agency when it comes to natural gas pipeline approvals. Without pathways to influence FERC approvals, these groups found success pushing state environmental agencies and commissions to halt development.
FERC referred NOTUS back to its decision to approve the pipeline when reached for comment.
But rumored dealmaking like Hochul’s suggests the tides could be turning as Democratic leaders who have advanced green-energy-friendly policies are becoming more amenable to natural gas.
In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy has sidestepped questions about how the state should rule on water quality permits for the pipeline. He told reporters this month that it “first and foremost has to be a New York state decision” and left the door open to natural gas on a case-by-case basis.
Like New York, in past years, New Jersey denied permits for this project, citing potential environmental harms, including damage to wetlands.
“We’ve been very alarmed by the potential that this project is getting somewhat of a pass from New York this time around,” Cindy Zipf, the executive director of New Jersey-based environmental group Clean Ocean Action, told NOTUS. “It’s alarming to hear that [Murphy] is looking towards what Governor Hochul might do to influence his decision.”
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection declined to comment. Murphy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Advocates say they’re seeing natural gas pipelines get a friendlier reception this year from state environmental authorities.
New York’s public service commission greenlit a plan last week for National Grid, an electricity delivery company, to incorporate the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline in its long-term reliability plan. Casey told NOTUS this decision could be a “bellwether for the state’s position as a whole” on the project.
Earlier this year, the state’s environmental conservation department also issued final permits for an expansion project that will increase the capacity of the Iroquois pipeline — an existing natural gas pipeline that runs through New York — despite outcry from environmentalists and state and local lawmakers.
“I worked on these issues in New York in the first Trump administration as well, and I think that the response at the state level has just been much, much worse in New York than it was at the time,” Beauchamp said. “All of it is a sign that this administration is really open to building this thing and that we all have our work cut out to kill it.”
State leaders have also signaled that they’re open to another pipeline Williams has proposed — the Constitution project, which would run 125 miles from Pennsylvania to New York — if it would help them preserve renewable energy projects that the administration is otherwise targeting.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has already attempted to discuss a deal with the administration that would allow Constitution pipeline construction to go forward in exchange for Trump’s team taking its hands off Revolution Wind, an offshore wind farm in the state that was halted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management before being revived by a federal judge this month.
The energy developer has made it clear that it’s capitalizing on Trump’s affinity for natural gas expansion.
“President Trump’s executive orders … make clear that agencies, including FERC, have been
directed to support infrastructure development,” Williams’ application to FERC earlier this year said.
Williams’ federal application also noted that the purpose, scope and impacts of the project — which FERC said in 2019 could include adverse environmental effects in New Jersey and New York — are unchanged from the initial pipeline attempt.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said its most recent water quality permit denial for Williams in 2020 was related to potential mercury and copper contamination and impacts on shellfish habitats, among other factors.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation told NOTUS that it is “continuing to review the approximately 17,000 new public comments submitted” and “is committed to protecting public health and the environment and subjects all permit applications to a rigorous review process.”
As they figure out a path forward, some advocacy groups are looking into legal pathways to advance their opposition. They are also hopeful that political risks will pressure state officials to change their tone on the pipeline.
“It seems like with everything happening, the political winds and everything else, there might not be as much opposition, but we’ve seen quite the opposite,” said Ed Potosnak, the executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, adding that 20 New Jersey towns across the political spectrum have authored letters discouraging approval of the water quality permits.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who will challenge Hochul for the governor’s seat in the Democratic primary next year, has made opposition to the project a key campaign talking point. And multiple members of New York’s Congressional delegation have criticized the fast-tracked process for moving the pipeline forward and called for more transparency from Hochul’s government.
“It just shows you’ve got to throw even more resources into organizing, into building a really people-powered movement, because all the kind of insider lobbying stuff is getting nowhere,“ Beauchamp told NOTUS. “I think very clearly we need a bigger movement, because where we’re at now isn’t winning.”