‘Sided With Trump’: Climate Groups Slam NY Approval of Gas Pipeline Off Queens’ Coast

New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation approved permits Friday for a gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to the Rockaways. The Trump administration has been cheerleading the plan—which critics say flies in the face of local climate goals.

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation approved permits Friday for a gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to the Rockaways—a project, pushed by the Trump administration, that the state previously rejected on environmental grounds.

The so-called “zombie pipeline”—or as it’s known officially, the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project—would pump gas to National Grid customers in New York City, with a 17-mile stretch beneath the ocean’s floor.

Environmental groups have protested it for years, saying it puts local waterways at risk and defies the state’s 2019 Climate Law, which mandates New York phase out the use of polluting fossil fuels.

Gov. Kathy Hochul defended the decision Friday, saying the plan was “reviewed impartially” by the DEC for compliance with state and federal law, and that her “top priority is making sure the lights and heat stay on for all New Yorkers.”

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“We need to govern in reality,” the governor said. “We are facing war against clean energy from Washington Republicans, including our New York delegation, which is why we have adopted an all-of-the-above approach that includes a continued commitment to renewables and nuclear power to ensure grid reliability and affordability.”

In the same statement, Hochul said the DEC is rejecting another Trump-backed natural gas project, dubbed the Constitution Pipeline, which would run from Pennsylvania to Upstate New York. That plan “did not meet the bar for completeness to advance,” she said.

But environmental groups slammed the NESE decision as New York bowing to pressure from President Donald Trump, who just days before criticized Hochul on social media for failing to move the pipelines forward. Since taking office, the Trump administration has championed oil and gas and slashed funding and incentives for clean energy.

“In granting the certification for this pipeline, Governor Hochul has not only sided with Trump, she’s fast-tracked his agenda,” Laura Shindell, New York State director with Food & Water Watch, said in a statement Friday.

Critics note that the DEC has already rejected water quality permits for the project, three previous times. In those past cases, the agency wrote it had “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.”

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Constructing the pipeline will require a process called “trenching”—digging a tunnel underwater—that critics say would disturb wildlife habitats and stir up contaminants buried under the sea floor.

“The certificate application hasn’t changed since being previously rejected by the DEC,” said Liz Moran, New York policy advocate with the group Earthjustice, in a statement. “Water quality standards haven’t changed—only the political context has changed and that’s not a basis to completely reverse course.”

In a letter approving the project’s water quality certificate, the DEC said its agreement with the pipeline operator, Transco, “requires mitigation for all unavoidable water quality impacts,” including “mandatory construction work windows to avoid and minimize impacts to aquatic species.”

Chad Zamarin, president and CEO of the Williams Company, which owns Transco, said the project will bring “clean, reliable and affordable natural gas” to New York. “Expanding natural gas infrastructure is vital to lowering costs and increasing economic opportunity,” he said.

But local advocates say the continued buildout of gas infrastructure is the real culprit behind New Yorkers’ rising energy bills, as construction costs get passed onto utility customers in the form of rate hikes.

Members of more than a dozen environmental organizations said they planned to protest outside Hochul’s office Friday afternoon (though the governor herself is currently in Puerto Rico).

“In the same month that Time Magazine named the Governor one of the world’s 100 most influential climate leaders, and state representatives are gathering in Brazil to advance international climate action, the Governor’s actions are speaking louder than her words,” Katherine Nadeau, deputy director at Environmental Advocates NY, said in a statement Friday. 

“Today’s decision seems to be more responsive to demands from President Trump than the concerns of New Yorkers.”

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