New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administrations approved key water-quality permits Friday for a proposed natural-gas pipeline off the New York City coast, with New York reversing its previous denials amid public and private pressure from President Donald Trump.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s about-face breathes new life into the once-moribund project known as the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline, a 25-mile conduit that would bring gas from Pennsylvania through central New Jersey and a 17-mile stretch in New York under the ocean floor near Staten Island and the Rockaways.
“As Governor, a top priority is making sure the lights and heat stay on for all New Yorkers as we face potential energy shortages downstate as soon as next summer,” Hochul said in a statement, noting she was confident in the regulators’ review. “We need to govern in reality.”
The NESE pipeline, as it’s known, also picked up key approvals Friday from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which authorized its own water-quality permit and a handful of others needed for the project, just a couple hours after New York acted.
The New York state regulators denied a similar permit application in the past, most recently in 2020, which seemed to have killed the project. But the Williams Companies, the group behind the pipeline proposal, renewed its application earlier this year — which came after Trump, a Republican, publicly and privately urged Hochul, a Democrat, to reconsider.
The New York DEC also announced Williams withdrew its application for a second, longer pipeline known as the Constitution, which would have run from Pennsylvania to west of the Albany area. The company said it’s still committed to the project and plans to resubmit its application soon with additional filings.
The Northeast decision immediately angered environmental organizations who have been urging the state to stand its ground.
“It is truly a sad day when New York leaders cave to the Trump administration and agree to build pipelines that New Yorkers do not need and cannot afford,” said Roger Downs, conservation director at the Sierra Club’s Atlantic chapter, in a statement Friday. “This decision is an affront to clean water, energy affordability and a stable climate.”
But the move also drew backlash from staunchly Republican Staten Island. Borough President Vito Fossella, an enthusiastic supporter of President Donald Trump said, he was “dismayed” by the decision.
“The environment of the [Raritan] Bay will suffer, and Staten Island commercial businesses, boaters and fishermen will be made to suffer,” Fossella in a statement Friday. “What, if anything, has changed from when this project was first proposed, and twice denied by the State, that now makes it right for the Raritan Bay and for the people of Staten Island?”
Williams President and CEO Chad Zamarin cheered the state’s decision, saying the Northeast pipeline will bolster reliability “while lowering energy costs and supporting economic growth and environmental stewardship.”
National Grid, the international utility company that serves a swath of New York City, would purchase the gas from the pipeline. In a statement, the company’s New York president Sally Librera said she was “pleased” with the state’s decision, and that the pipeline “will bolster critical energy reliability across New York City and Long Island.”
The decision comes two days after Trump took to his social media platform to fault Hochul for failing to get the pipeline approved and threaten to pull federal approval for the Manhattan congestion toll in retaliation — a prospect Hochul has managed to keep at bay. The governor also convinced the president to not kill a wind farm off the coast of Long Island.
Still, the state admits there will be some environmental damage from the pipeline project.
“Construction is proposed in a manner that will minimize impairment of the best usages of the waters, but mitigation will be required for unavoidable impacts to marine resources,” New York’s environmental agency said in a release.
Project supporters have pointed to skyrocketing utility costs as one justification for the project. More than 90 business groups, labor unions and other organizations who support the project signed onto a letter in recent weeks urging Hochul to approve it, pointing to increasing energy demand. “Without new solutions, our grid risks falling short,” they wrote.
In September, the state Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, concluded that the pipeline would “materially improve the reliability and resilience of the Downstate gas system.” Gothamist reported in September that the federal government would be passing on the cost of construction to utility customers in New York and New Jersey.
Residential bills would increase, on average, by $7.44 on Long Island and $7.61 in Brooklyn, Staten Island and parts of Queens as a result, according to National Grid estimates.
The permit, which the states had the power to issue under the federal Clean Water Act, had been one of the main hurdles to getting the pipeline built. In 2020, the New York DEC under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo determined the project had the potential to damage water quality by kicking up sediment and other contaminants that “would disturb sensitive habitats, including shellfish beds.”
That hurdle is removed, but others remain.
New Jersey still has to issue an air-quality permit, with a public hearing scheduled for Thursday. Environmental organizations in New York, meanwhile, hinted that they could test the state’s reversal in the courts, pointing to the lack of any substantive changes to Williams’ permit since the last time it was denied.
“We are reviewing the certification and evaluating our options,” said Liz Moran, New York Policy Advocate at Earthjustice, a group that litigates environmental issues.
