Environmental groups say New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is quietly smoothing the path for two gas pipeline projects President Donald Trump is pushing for in the state.
The Hochul administration has said state officials will do an impartial review of the Constitution natural gas pipeline and the Northeast Supply Enhancement, or NESE, gas project. But activists coming together to fight them say the Democrat’s appointees are allowing shortcuts that violate environmental laws and procedures.
“Why isn’t she following the law?” said Anne Marie Garti, a lawyer who has fought Constitution for years from her home in the Catskills, near the route of the proposed line. “That makes me suspicious.”
State regulators said they are following the laws in their reviews of the pipelines. Williams Cos., the corporation behind both lines, said its projects undergo rigorous reviews.
White House officials have bragged that Hochul “caved” under pressure from Trump earlier this year. They say she agreed to support the two pipelines in exchange for lifting the hold the administration put on construction of Empire Wind 1, a fully permitted wind energy project off the coast of New York.
After that, Williams announced it was reviving its NESE and Constitution projects, which it had abandoned in the face of regulatory and political resistance. The growing criticism of Hochul shows that, while some of the hurdles are lower now, they haven’t disappeared. It also highlights the tricky choices Hochul faces as she seeks reelection next year — as well as resistance to energy projects in the Northeast even as Democratic governors take a friendlier stance.
Hochul has denied making a pipeline-for-wind-farm deal with the president and has said she was already willing to support pipeline proposals if they are needed and comply with the law. But now that Trump is targeting wind projects off the coast of other states, it’s the activists in the Democratic base who are targeting Hochul.
Hochul’s office referred a request for comment to her previous statements, such as an interview with Bloomberg this month where she said she focused on saving 1,500 jobs Empire Wind would bring.
“But I also said, ‘I’m looking at an all-of-the-above approach to energy, so work with me,'” Hochul told Bloomberg, explaining her negotiations with Trump about Empire Wind.
The White House did not respond to a question about whether officials there think Hochul’s administration is reviewing Williams’ pipeline projects swiftly enough. But White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in an email that only “self-interested activists would oppose streamlining reliable US natural gas flowing to help fellow Americans reduce their energy bills.”
Constitution and NESE were two of at least five Northeastern gas pipeline proposals shredded by local opposition and environmental litigation during the Biden and first Trump administrations.
The revival of Constitution and NESE has renewed the tug-of-war over how to power the Northeast, from wind turbines and other renewable sources to fossil fuels delivered by pipeline.
Whether or not the governor made a deal with Trump, her moves suggest she’s not putting up any obstacles to the projects, which were previously stymied by state regulators during both her tenure and that of her predecessor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
Mark Izeman, who has fought both of the Williams proposals for years as a senior attorney and senior strategist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said he’s seeing signs that the Hochul administration is pressuring New York regulators to approve the pipelines.
And, Izeman said, “All signs indicate that the pressure is coming from the top.”
‘Awful’ calculation?
Hochul’s loudest critics on the left are accusing her of shifting rightward after Republican Lee Zeldin came within six points of beating her in the 2022 election. Zeldin is now the EPA administrator in Washington.
“She’s made an awful political calculation in thinking she needs to cozy up to Trump,” Laura Shindell, New York state director for the Food & Water Watch nonprofit, said in an interview.
Hochul faces reelection next year with her lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, challenging her in the Democratic primary and Rep. Elise Stefanik considered a likely contender for the Republican nomination. It’s not clear what role the pipelines could play in the primaries or the general election. Any final decision by Hochul is months away, at least, and many other factors will determine whether either project gets built.
In public remarks, Hochul has said she’s working to make energy more affordable and reliable in the face of a federal government that is actively undermining renewable energy projects that have been in development for years in the Northeast. She has also touted new renewable energy project such as the Champlain Hudson Power Express, a transmission line being built to deliver electricity from Canadian dams to power New York City.
The governor’s decisions are also being closely watched as other politicians across the country strategize about ways to interact with Trump.
“You’d have to put her firmly in the category of Democratic governors negotiating with Trump,” Barry Rabe, professor emeritus of environmental policy at the University of Michigan and now a visiting scholar at Balsillie School of International Affairs in Canada.
Other Democratic governors in the Northeast have also shown increased openness to gas pipeline projects because projected energy demand and electricity prices have been rising.
The administration of Cuomo — who Hochul succeeded in 2021 when he resigned — blocked both NESE and Constitution by refusing to sign off on approvals required under the Clean Water Act.
In 2021, Hochul rejected two gas power plants that supporters said would bolster grid reliability. And in 2023, state regulators weighed in against an extension of a federal permit for NESE.
But more recently, Hochul has shown increasing openness to gas projects to meet growing electricity demand and talks about an “all-of-the-above” energy policy.
Even before the revival of the two gas pipeline proposals, advocates were outraged by the Hochul administration’s approval earlier this year of a gas project called the Iroquois Enhancement.
‘No deal is ever final’
Since the administration unblocked Empire Wind, New York’s state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has made permitting decisions that eased the burden on Oklahoma-based Williams, the pipeline company behind the projects.
The department started its review of Williams’ application for a water permit for Constitution even though the company hasn’t sought a federal permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Critics say that’s procedurally improper — that it’s putting the proverbial cart before the horse.
And while DEC held a 45-day public comment period on NESE, it declined to hold a public hearing that supporters and opponents of the project could attend. That move sped up the department’s final decision on NESE.
“It’s hard to think of any project of this size that didn’t allow a full public hearing, much less one as controversial as this,” said the NRDC’s Izeman.
DEC’s NESE review “fully complies with all legal requirements,” department spokesperson Cecilia Walsh said. She added that the review process varies by project, but said it is thorough, transparent and guided by stringent state and federal laws.
In the case of Constitution, Williams itself canceled its FERC permit, called a “certificate,” in 2020 after years of fighting Cuomo and his administration. Williams hasn’t returned to FERC for a new permit.
Without a new application to FERC, there is no project for state regulators at DEC to evaluate, said Garti, who won legal victories in the previous years against Constitution while she represented a group called Stop the Pipeline.
“I was shocked DEC was considering the application without an application at FERC,” Garti said. “That indicated to me she had made a deal.”
Walsh responded that DEC’s review was triggered by Williams’ request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit under the Clean Water Act. Such permits require the signoff of state environmental officials.
Walsh said in an email that the department’s evaluation of Constitution is “legally required.” She also noted the state has twice returned the Constitution application to Williams as incomplete.
“The application will remain administratively incomplete, and thus cannot move forward, until all information requested is submitted,” Walsh said in her emailed statement.
New York’s Public Service Commission — a utility regulator run by panel of seven gubernatorial appointees — has also moved briskly. Earlier this month it endorsed NESE by approving a plan that says a new pipeline is needed to bring more gas into New York City. Opponents called the move hasty because it came only eight days after the commission’s comment period closed.
Williams officials say their projects undergo rigorous environmental reviews and will deliver economic and reliability benefits to New York.
“Williams is committed to transparency, community engagement, and supporting New York’s climate and energy goals,” company spokesperson Alex Schott said in an emailed statement. “Assertions to the contrary misrepresent both the facts and our record of responsible development.”
DEC’s procedural moves are “consistent” with the idea that Hochul made a deal with Trump for approval of the pipeline, said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. But he added, “It’s not proof.”
And with nothing in writing, Trump or Hochul could change course at any time. Hochul’s administration hasn’t approved either pipeline. Construction on Empire Wind 1 isn’t finished, noted Rabe with the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Canada.
“No deal is ever final,” Rabe said. “That’s true of both parties.”
