(The Center Square) — Green groups are suing to block a proposed natural gas pipeline that would run through sections of New Jersey to New York City after Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul gave a green light to the previously rejected project.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District, seeks to overturn a decision by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to approve a water quality certification for the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline, despite having rejected the plan twice. Opponents of the pipeline filed a similar lawsuit against New Jersey environmental regulators, who also approved the project.
Susan Kraham, northeast managing attorney for Earthjustice, one of the groups that sued DEC, said the New York regulatory agency’s approval of the gas pipeline was a “180 degree reversal” from its rejection of the same application five years ago.
“The project hasn’t changed, the impacts haven’t changed — the only thing that has changed is DEC’s decision which it reversed with no reasonable explanation,” Kraham said in a statement.
The NESE pipeline would run from shale-rich Lancaster County, Pa., through New Jersey to New York City. It calls for building nearly 24 miles of new pipeline, most of which would run under New York Harbor.
It was given a green light in New York by Hochul after the Democrat reportedly struck a deal with President Donald Trump in order to save an offshore wind project under construction off the coast of Long Island. Hochul has denied making a deal. But she defended her support for the pipeline project, saying it is aimed at bringing down energy costs.
Environmental groups claim the pipeline would tear up the harbor floor, destroy marine habitats, and contaminate the water with mercury, copper, PCBs and other toxins. They said those concerns were cited by the regulatory board in its review of the project.
“Playing politics with clean water endangers all New Yorkers,” Roger Downs, conservation director of the Sierra Club Atlantic chapter, said in a statement. ‘By approving the 401 Water Quality Certificate, the NYSDEC has undercut the same agency scientists that determined the NESE pipeline would cause unacceptable degradation of water quality and marine life to New York waters just a few years ago.”
“We cannot compromise our laws and scientific principles just to appease the Trump administration’s overreach,” he said.
In 2020, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo denied the Oklahoma-based Williams Companies a permit to bury the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline. The company revived the project earlier this year after President Trump touted the need for more natural gas in the Northeast region.
Trump has signed executive orders and directed federal agencies to expand natural gas pipeline development by expediting permitting, while also taking actions to increase LNG exports. The move is aimed at bringing down costs for consumers and increasing the county’s energy independence.
Industry groups have long argued that high energy costs in the Northeast are being driven in part by a lack of natural gas capacity. Under the Biden administration, several gas pipeline projects were blocked.
