New York's Public Service Commission has approved National Grid’s long-term gas plan, which includes the Northeast Supply Enhancement project pipeline that would carry gas underwater from New Jersey to a connection in the Rockaways.
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The PSC's 6 to 1 vote favoring the pipeline comes as the state continues reviewing the thrice previously denied NESE application, in consideration of arguments that it could bring down the cost of electricity statewide and reduce the state’s dependency on oil. The issue will next seek Department of Environmental Conservation approval.
Critics say the PSC vote comes a mere eight business days after the close of the public comment period, where more than 10,000 oppositional comments were submitted.
New York Renews Coalition Executive Director Stephan Edel said "This is a huge giveaway to National Grid, to AI data centers, to other industrial users that provide very little benefit to their communities at the expense, more than a $3 billion expense of New York State ratepayers."
Rich Schrader, a board member of the non-profit Frack Action, labeled the vote "capricious," arguing the PSC's acceptance of National Grid's long-term gas plan is based on what he calls "discredited 2024 data." Schrader adds the vote is one step closer to locking downstate utility customers into decades of costs based on a discredited forecast.
"It's going to increase maybe by 12% the amount of gas capacity. And it'll be built by -when - maybe 2030, 2029-2030. And by that year, by National Grid's own calculations, there'll have been a 13% decline in gas use. So we're not going to need it, and it's going to be expensive, and it's going to have a tremendous disruption in terms of the New York Harbor on a lot of levels, which has already been proved by the Department of Environmental Conservation in previous permitting analyses for this very same pipeline in 2019 and 2020," said Schrader.
Edel says the PSC vote doesn't automatically seal the pipeline's fate.
"DEC would have to approve it. It would actually have to permit the project. And that's going to be the venue where many of us across the state, pretty much the entire environmental and climate movement, but also communities all across New York in the path of the pipeline are going to be advocating and pushing for the state not to reverse its decision and to hold that this is, in fact, illegal and against the public interest," Edel said.
In May, Governor Kathy Hochul said she was considering the “benefits” of new energy projects that meet state environmental laws – including pipeline projects – “at a time when energy prices are through the roof.”
National Grid did not return a call for comment.
