The Trump administration is putting up $42 million to revive the Constitution Pipeline, the controversial plan to send natural gas along a 125-mile route from Pennsylvania, through New York and into New England.
The U.S. Department of Energy on Monday, Oct. 19, said the funding would come out of $1 billion in defense funding allocated for energy projects deemed critical to national security.
“For too long, families and businesses in New York and other blue states have paid the price for anti-energy policies that kneecap production, block critical infrastructure and drive up costs,” said Doug Burgum, the administration’s Interior secretary. “President Trump is reversing that failed approach, choosing abundance over government-imposed scarcity.”
Environmental groups joined the Hochul administration in panning the idea, dismissing suggestions natural gas will drive down energy prices.
“Today’s announcement is nothing more than a political ploy to divert attention from Trump's tariffs and his reckless war in Iran that have not only failed to bring down prices as the President promised, but have dramatically driven up home energy costs and gas prices at the pump,” said Ken Lovett, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s senior communications adviser on energy and environment.
“While the President continues to obsess over blocking renewable energy projects in order to focus on gas, oil and even coal, Governor Hochul is focused on driving an all-of-the-above energy strategy designed to keep the lights on and costs down for New Yorkers,” Lovett added.
Energy costs an issue in NY governor's race
Hochul has clashed with Bruce Blakeman, her Republican challenger in the November election, over who’s to blame for the state’s surging energy prices.
The Constitution Pipeline proposal has been kicking around for over a decade and spurred a legal challenge from leading environmental groups who say it will destroy wetlands, streams and creeks and require the clearcutting of over 200 acres of forest.
In 2020, Constitution’s developers, the Williams Companies of Oklahoma, pulled back the project bid after the state of New York rejected its request for a water quality permit. Environmental groups viewed Monday’s announcement as an effort to sidestep the legal and regulatory hurdles that have stood in Constitution’s way.
"Trump is trying to waste $42 million of taxpayers' money to pay for a pipeline with no purpose and which would actually raise our energy bills while it poisons our water,” said Julia Walsh, the director of Frack Action. “Trump is trying to trample our state's rights by jamming this pipeline through against our will.”
The pipeline would course through the Southern Tier and the Catskills before going into New England.
In 2015, New York banned fracking, the process of releasing gas from underground shale formations.
Last year, several towns and villages along the Constitution route adopted resolutions urging Hochul to reject Constitution as well as an expansion of the Algonquin Gas Transmission known as Project Maple.
Thomas C. Zambito covers energy, transportation and economic growth for the USA TODAY Network’s New York State team. He’s won dozens of state and national writing awards from the Associated Press, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Deadline Club and others during a decades-long career that’s included stops at the New York Daily News, The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Record of Hackensack. He can be reached at tzambito@lohud.com
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Trump revives Constitution Pipeline plan with $42M. How it impacts NY
