With Trump’s Help, Gas Supplier Fast Tracks Rejected Application for Pipeline Off NYC Coast

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation has already rejected the permits needed to bring the NESE pipeline to life three times, saying previously that the project would “disturb sensitive habitats” and “result in significant water quality impacts.”

“Don’t mess up my beach, girl,” New Yorker and comedian Ilana Glazer pleaded to Gov. Kathy Hochul in late July in an Instagram reel with over 46,000 likes.

Glazer wants the governor to reject the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, which would build a natural gas pipeline that would start in Pennsylvania and end in New York City’s beachfront community, the Rockaways, with a 17-mile stretch below the ocean floor. 

And she’s not alone. New York City organizations, residents, and elected officials submitted over 13,000 comments over the last two weeks asking Hochul to reject the project.

Put forth by Transco, a subsidiary of the major U.S. gas supplier Williams Company, NESE would bring gas to National Grid’s New York City customers to ensure the utility company can meet peak demand, especially in the colder months.  

But the project, which critics say is at odds with New York’s legal commitment to shift to cleaner sources of energy, would also surface contaminants like mercury and copper that accumulated at the bottom of the ocean, thanks to decades of industrial activity.

This would “disturb sensitive habitats” and “result in significant water quality impacts,” according to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which has already rejected the water quality permits needed to bring the pipeline to life three times.

Despite the rejections, Williams is recycling old applications to fast-track approvals on both the state and federal levels thanks to political pressure from President Donald Trump, according to lawyers, environmentalists and public filings reviewed by City Limits. 

Counting on Trump’s political muscle to get the project over the finish line, Williams didn’t start a new request for necessary permits from scratch, as is the norm. Instead, Williams admitted to “resubmitting” an application the DEC rejected in 2019. And the company is trying to “re-issue” a federal approval for the project that was “vacated” or considered void by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

“[Williams’] application is the same. The only thing that has changed is that we have a new president who is bullying the governor to make a deal for this project and approve it now,” said Susan Kraham, managing attorney at Earthjustice.

Rumor has it that Hochul agreed to greenlight more gas pipeline projects in exchange for Trump lifting a stop-work order on a New York offshore wind venture in May.

At the time, Hochul’s office said “no deal on any natural gas pipeline was reached.” But Trump’s Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum, posted on X that Hochul had signaled a “willingness to move forward on critical pipeline capacity” shortly after the stop-work order was lifted.

Two months later, the DEC determined that Williams’ application for a state water quality permit was complete and would move forward for further review. 

“DEC’s review process for natural gas pipeline proposals varies by project type and scope and are thorough, transparent, and guided by stringent state and federal environmental laws and regulations,” DEC assured in an email, underscoring that the agency is “committed to protecting public health and the environment.”

Meanwhile, Williams’ CEO Chad Zamarin is sure they have New York’s stamp of approval in the bag. At a second-quarter earnings call earlier this month, Zamarin said he expects New York to issue a permit for the project “in the next couple of months.”

Same application, different day

“I’ve known the ocean right off the Rockaways for most of my life and I will do anything to protect it,” said Joan Flynn, a retired real estate appraiser and fundraiser.

The Rockways, where Flynn has spent the past 52 years, is a peninsula at the southern end of Queens known for its beautiful beaches. 

Flynn has stood strong against NESE for nearly a decade, saying that installing a gas pipeline underwater will pollute the ocean she calls home. She even went on a three-day hunger strike in 2019 in front of the governor’s office to protest the venture.

Earlier this month, she joined hundreds of people in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge to demand the DEC reject the newest attempt to revive the project.

For Flynn and others keeping track of the four times Williams has tried to bring the pipeline to life—in 2017, 2018, 2019 and now 2025—it’s familiar territory.

“It feels like deja vu,” said Alex Beauchamp, Northeast region director at Food & Water Watch, who has fought all four attempts.

History is more than repeating itself. This past May, Williams put forth a nearly identical application to the one the DEC denied in 2020.

“Transco is now resubmitting its application as it existed at the time of the Denial with substantially the same information,” the company admitted in the cover letter of this year’s application. 

Experts say such a move is rare.

“It is quite unusual for a company to simply recycle or dust off an old application that has been rejected without many modifications,” explained Mark Izeman, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who did a deep dive into the application with the environmental organization Earthjustice.

They concluded in a document submitted to the DEC that the only new items in the 2025 application are an updated greenhouse gas emissions analysis and a letter that admits the project will likely not comply with New York’s landmark climate law. Known as the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the law says the state needs to mostly phase out the use of planet-warming fuels like gas by 2030.

“The logical thing to do is for a company or developer that has been rejected to address the concerns of the environmental officials before submitting again,” Izeman said.

Williams begs to differ.

“The project will meet all other environmental standards of the affected states through responsible development and ongoing engagement with regulators,” a Williams spokesperson assured in an emailed statement.

But the very application the company re-submitted was previously denied because DEC “determined that the construction of the [NESE] project would have adverse water quality impacts in New York State,” and “cause numerous other significant adverse environmental impacts,” including disrupting an important breeding ground for shellfish.

Williams’ plan involves a process called “trenching” or digging up a tunnel underwater for the pipeline to pass through. This digging can not only disturb wildlife habitats, but re-suspend toxic contaminants sitting at the bottom of the ocean that industries dumped into the water over the years.

An environmental impact study included in Williams’ application shows that once these contaminants are suspended, they will show up in the water in quantities that exceed healthy limits established by state laws. 

“There’s no new technology that suddenly makes it possible for them not to re-suspend all those contaminants. They haven’t changed the project at all to avoid any of that,” said Kraham, who studied the application with Izeman.

“What they are saying is: yeah, yeah, that’s still the case. But give [us the permit] anyway because there has been a political shift,” she added.

Paying the political price

When Donald Trump was still vying for his second chance at the oval office, he sat down at his Mar-a-Lago club to share a meal with some of the country’s top oil executives and asked them for $1 billion in donations for his campaign. In exchange, he promised to move his “drill baby drill” agenda forward, and dig for more oil and gas.

Seven months into his presidency, Trump has reportedly delivered tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks and other benefits to the fossil fuel industry.

But as gas suppliers turn a profit selling more polluting fuel to utility companies, gas customers are the ones footing the bill. The price tag for pipeline projects like NESE, which itself will range between $2.1 and $2.5 billion, eventually trickles down to gas consumers, as the costs of the added supply gets baked into utility bills. 

Long Island, Brooklyn, Staten Island and most of Queens will have to pay off at least $193 million a year for the next 15 years to cover the pipeline’s cost, according to estimates put forth by National Grid in 2020. That figure is likely much higher now since the agency that regulates utilities in New York, the Public Service Commission (PSC), determined the project will now cost more than twice what it would have in 2020.

“Once you build something like that and you’ve trapped ratepayers into paying for it, where’s the motivation to keep investing in clean energy and improving energy efficiency?” asked Suzanne Mattei, an energy policy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Thanks in large part to new infrastructure buildouts, utility bills have been going up in New York. Every major gas utility in the state has raised the cost of energy for their customers over the last three years, according to a report by the Alliance for a Green Economy. 

Trump, however, argued on social media that building more pipelines in New York and across New England will “save BIG money,” as adding more gas to the system will increase supply, driving down prices.

And Williams agrees. 

“Williams is moving forward with the NESE project to meet energy demand in the Northeast with clean, reliable, and affordable natural gas,” the company said in an emailed statement.

The NESE pipeline’s only customer, National Grid, says it needs the extra gas to meet peak demand for fuel in New York City, especially in the colder months.

NESE will “comprehensively improve reliability of gas service to all National Grid’s Downstate New York” customers, a National Grid spokesperson said in an email.

Reliable service is a point of concern in New York, as there isn’t enough clean energy online right now to replace the fossil fuels that power buildings and homes. Only about 29 percent of the Empire State’s electricity comes from renewable sources like wind and solar, with 96 percent of the downstate region still powered by fossil fuels.

A 2023 report by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli attributed this to inconsistent funding and long project timelines. And political decisions by Trump aren’t helping: the president published an executive order earlier this year that suspended new leasing and permitting for projects that would generate clean electricity from wind. He also put a New York-based offshore wind project on hold until Hochul convinced him to lift the pause.

Despite all that, a myriad of new climate legislation to help transition the state to clean energy is kicking in, and is expected to reduce the state’s dependence on gas infrastructure in the near future. Starting next year, the All Electric Buildings Act will prohibit the installation of fossil fuel equipment in most new construction statewide. 

A similar law on the local level already kicked in last year in New York City. Plus Local Law 97, which requires buildings larger than 25,000 square feet to reduce their carbon footprints through energy efficiency upgrades, went into swing this year. 

Projections published this month by the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC), using National Grid’s own data, shows that the utility company has lowered its expectations for how much gas it will need to meet demand in the coming years.  

Earlier estimates that the utility made in 2024 (represented by the dotted pink line in the chart below), failed to take into account that “household gas use has become much more efficient and that the actual use per household has gone way down,” said Josh Berman, an attorney at Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program.

Updated demand figures (pictured by the solid pink line), show that NESE’s added gas supply, represented in green, will exceed the demand for gas projected from 2025 through 2049, according to an independent analysis from the PSC.

National Grid disagrees with the PSC’s estimates. In an email, the company said its own projections “demonstrate the need for the project, including that demand could outpace supply during the coldest winter hours in the coming years, potentially leading to disruptions of gas service.”

But if New York wants to completely phase out gas by 2050, as required by the CLCPA, it shouldn’t tie gas customers to a contract they’ll be stuck paying for more than a decade, Berman warns.

“New York is entering into a super long term contract at a time when they are not foreseeing a need for the gas,” he said.

On the fast track

Approving more gas projects at this point has more to do with politics than necessity, especially since Williams’ recycled application is moving through the state’s approval process at record speed, advocates say.

“Hochul is willing to sacrifice New Yorkers, particularly Black, brown and low income New Yorkers who are going to face the most environmental impacts from this project, for the sake of political favors and corporate profit,” said Niki Cross, an attorney at the non-profit New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

Until February of this year, when the state approved the Iroquois Pipeline expansion project, New York had vehemently rejected at least 10 attempts from gas suppliers to build out more local infrastructure. These projects, DEC said time and time again, would “interfere” with achieving statewide greenhouse gas emission reductions set by the CLCPA.

Three months after approving Iroquois’ expansion, which federal agencies say is set to generate $3.78 billion in climate damages, DEC began considering the revived NESE.  The massive venture would add six times the amount of gas to the system than Iroquois is slated to.

A spokesperson for Hochul denied any deal with Trump on pipelines. “The only commitment the Governor has made is to work with everyone, including the Trump Administration, on new energy projects that meet the legal requirements under New York law,” Ken Lovett, the governor’s senior communications advisor, said in an email.

“She believes an all-of-the-above approach will improve reliability, reduce costs for New Yorkers, and result in lower emissions,” he added. “Every project application will undergo a rigorous, impartial review to determine potential impact and compliance with all applicable laws.” 

Meanwhile, NESE’s application for the state water quality permit is moving along faster than ever, as New York agreed in June to issue its decision in a mere six months. A proceeding like this typically takes up to two years to resolve, according to lawyers who spoke with City Limits.

An executive order Trump published in January declared a national energy emergency, requiring government agencies to “expedite the delivery of energy infrastructure projects.” 

Despite claiming the country is thirsty for energy, his executive order doesn’t apply to non-fossil fuel ventures like solar and wind. Instead, Trump put Empire Wind, a New York clean energy project set to power half a million homes, temporarily on hold.

A lawsuit put forth by 15 Democratic states challenges the so-called energy emergency. In 2024, the United States produced “more energy than ever before,” according to federal authorities. 

Still, requests to fast track approvals for NESE are being considered on the federal level as well. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which gives out the national certificate or permit needed for gas suppliers to build out infrastructure, is reviewing a request from Williams to revive an old permit for the venture that the commission issued in 2019 and that has since expired.

Williams admitted in its petition that an “expedited reissuance” of the expired certificate “is a novel” approach. “Transco requests the Commission reinstate the certificate for the NESE Project to allow it to pursue the Project and begin construction as soon as possible,” the petition reads.   

But the certificate, which environmental groups call a “zombie” permit, is already dead. 

Last year, after failing repeatedly to secure New York’s approval for the project, Williams notified FERC that it would let the certificate, which had already been extended twice, expire. The company assured at the time that it would “not be seeking another extension.” The move prompted FERC to then “vacate” the certificate, in other words, consider it null and void.

Still, Williams argued in a document submitted to FERC earlier this month that it’s not requesting that FERC “simply extend, resurrect, resuscitate, or revive the previous certificate authorization.” Rather, it’s asking the agency to “re-issue” the permit, a term they emphasize is more appropriate. 

“Circumstances have changed since the original NESE certificate expired,” Williams  argues, citing Trump’s executive order and saying “the need for energy supply in the Northeast has become even more urgent.”

“Re-issuing” a dead permit is just an excuse to fast track the application, says environmental lawyer Anne-Marie Garti, though there aren’t enough legal protections in place to stop FERC from bringing back the old certificate.

“There is nothing in FERC regulations that stops them from reviving a vacated certificate,” Garti said. 

Garti has been on the frontlines of fighting the Constitution Pipeline, another Williams venture New York previously rejected that Trump is also trying to revive. Advocates challenged the project in court, resulting in a second circuit decision in 2021 that ordered FERC to dismiss earlier proceedings. 

That means if Williams wants to revive plans for the Constitution—which would run from Pennsylvania to Upstate New York—it will have to file a new application and re-do the entire approval process, Garti said.

“It’s a higher court than FERC, so in Constitution’s case, [FERC] has to comply with that. They can’t do this little trick that they’re doing with NESE where they say: ‘Oh we will just re-issue the old certificate,’” Garti explained.

FERC is already known for quickly approving applications for pipeline expansions. But Richard Glick, former FERC chairman, thinks we’re likely to see them move at record speed under Trump.

“I suspect the president’s going to try to press FERC to move even faster than it has in the past in approving pipeline projects,” Glick said. 

If New York gives Trump his way now, he may demand more climate concessions, environmentalists warn.

“It’s kind of like the old bully thing where you give the bully lunch money and they don’t stop asking, they just keep coming back again and again,” said Beauchamp of Food & Water Watch.

“If New York greenlights this project, Trump is going to keep coming back asking for more. And the more you cave, the worse it’s going to get for you.” 

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