Whether or not it amounts to a quid pro quo of offshore wind approval by the Trump administration for natural gas approval by New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration, all of these projects are needed to ensure power generation and reliability, and natural gas service reliability for New York and New England.
According to Hochul’s staff,
she had several phone calls with Trump, convincing him to revive the Empire
wind project he halted, arguing that 1500 union jobs would be affected. Hochul
stated publicly that she will only approve the pipelines if they meet federal
and state requirements. According to the Institute for Energy Research, Equinor
has already lost well over $200 million due to the delay:
“The pause of more than a month was costing Norway-based
Equinor up to $50 million per week with 11 ships out at sea and on standby.
Equinor’s Chief Executive Officer, Anders Opedal, visited the White House to
lobby on behalf of the project.”
The $5 billion Empire 1
project has a design capacity of 810 MW and is expected to be completed in
2027. Empire Wind re-negotiated a price of $150.15 per MW, triple the cost of
natural gas plant generation.
The Constitution Pipeline was
originally proposed in 2013 by Williams Companies and received nearly all of
its permits before the state of New York’s environmental agency refused to
approve some key water permits. Their argument was that the pipeline could
affect wetlands and streams with its water crossings. If approved, the 124-mile
pipeline could be constructed in a year or less. It was originally expected to
cost $700 million, but legal challenges and delays caused the price tag to
increase by 40% to over $1 billion. The pipeline was officially scrapped in
2020. New York State has a ban on fracking. I had worked on several Marcellus
vertical well tests and cores in preparation for horizontal drilling back in
the early 2010s. The ban was official in early 201,5 but was implicit in the
years before that. Pipelining to New York and New England, one of the most
abundant and lowest-cost natural gas sources in the world, is practical and
just common sense.
Williams is also reviving its
Northeast Supply Enhancement project. This project is a 23-mile underwater
pipeline from New Jersey to New York City that would run parallel to its
existing Transco pipeline and then connect to it to provide gas for state
markets. While radical environmental orgs like Food & Water Watch are
vowing to fight these projects again, they will have less ability to do so than
before as Congress moves toward permit reform, and if the governor and the
Trump administration agree on their importance. Importantly, other New England
states would gain needed increased access to natural gas.
“S&P Global found in a recent survey that expanding
pipelines could reduce natural gas prices in the Northeast by up to 30%.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont “wants to bring new energy resources into New
England to lower costs for ratepayers and is willing to work with federal and
regional partners to achieve this goal,” he said in April in a statement to
Barron’s.
Environmental groups argued
that the NESE pipeline was not needed, and Williams scrapped the project in May
2024. Reviving the development of both pipelines is expected to cost about $2
billion.
The bottom line is that power
demand is expected to rise, and to ensure the reliability of power and natural
gas service, an all-of-the-above strategy is needed for New York State and New
England. Many in the Northeast have been infuriated by New York’s ability to
stop pipelines not only for New York state but for other New England states
that are landlocked, as any pipelines coming from Marcellus fields in Northeast
Pennsylvania would have to go through New York State first.
References:
Deal
Or No Deal? The Empire 1 Offshore Wind Project Is Moving Ahead, But Hochul Is
Denying There Is A Pipeline Quid Pro Quo. Institute for Energy Research. Natural
Gas Now. June 10, 2025. Deal
Or No Deal? The Empire 1 Offshore Wind Project Is Moving Ahead, But Hochul Is
Denying There Is A Pipeline Quid Pro Quo.
Trump
Reverses NY Wind Farm Stance in Pipeline Deal With Hochul. Bloomberg. May 20,
2025. Trump
Reverses NY Wind Farm Stance in Pipeline Deal With
Williams
throws in towel on NESE pipeline project. Suzanne Mattei. Institute for Energy
Economics and Financial Analysis. May 14, 2024. Williams
throws in towel on NESE pipeline project | IEEFA
Williams
to Revive Constitution, NESE Pipelines in Joint Effort with Regulators.
Pipeline & Gas Journal. May 29, 2025. Williams
to Revive Constitution, NESE Pipelines in Joint Effort with Regulators |
Pipeline and Gas Journal
Developer
Confirms Revival of Northeast Gas Line Projects Totaling $2B. Debra K. Rubin.
Engineering News Record. June 3, 2025. Developer
Confirms Revival of Northeast Gas Line Projects Totaling $2B | Engineering
News-Record
Empire
Wind 1. Empire Wind. Empire Wind 1 -
Empire Wind
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