Much of the following article is sourced from online articles published by WSKG in March and July 2025:
According to an article broadcast and written online on July 25 by WSKG, two previously rejected natural gas pipelines are getting another look by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). This prospect has revived opponents of fracking who fought against it for decades. New York banned the gas extraction method in 2014.
Environmentalists and community advocates say that the construction and operation of these pipelines would harm water quality across the state. Both were previously denied permits by the DEC and environmental advocates heralded it as a major win against the oil and gas industry.
Additionally, the construction of new natural gas pipelines flies in the face of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the 2019 state law that sets New York on a path to generate 70% of its energy by non-greenhouse gas producing methods (such as solar and wind with enhanced distribution lines and battery storage) by 2030. This law was passed due to the increasingly dire situation we find ourselves in from the burning of fossil fuels and leakage of methane into the atmosphere, causing global warming and climate change with subsequent hurricanes, floods, droughts, crop failures, food insecurity, economic losses, fires, migration, and toxic air quality.
In New York state, these gas pipelines legally can be challenged on the basis of a realistic threat to water quality.
ACTION PLAN:
You are urged to send a public comment about the plan to revive the Northeast Supply Enhancement gas pipeline project to the DEC no later than August 16!
Submit your comments electronically at DEPEnergy@dec.ny.gov.
The Constitution pipeline would span 125 miles from Susquehanna County (in northeast Pennsylvania) to Schoharie County, New York (just southwest of Albany). There it would connect with two other pipelines. Williams Companies, the Tulsa, Oklahoma corporation heading the project, says it would tap into the Marcellus Shale and provide enough natural gas to fulfill the needs of about three million homes in the Northeast. The other natural gas pipeline project, the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, would run about 24 miles under New York Harbor with construction in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. According to Williams, it would connect two parts of existing pipelines to bring more natural gas to New York City.
The NESE pipeline received a federal permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2019. That permit expired in 2021 because the company did not build the pipeline within two years. The company reapplied for a new federal permit earlier this year.
Williams says they expect construction to begin later this year.