Trump administration officials hailed “innovation over regulation” Tuesday at a ceremonial groundbreaking for a natural gas pipeline that was staunchly opposed by “green” activists for a decade.
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The Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline project will run underwater off the city’s coast to transfer gas from Pennsylvania to the Big Apple region to meet sky-high energy demands in the area, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at the ceremony at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.
“One of the things we’re celebrating is innovation over regulation, and we’re celebrating perseverance and common sense,” he said along with other Trump cabinet leaders and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican running for governor.
“What we’re here to celebrate isn’t just infrastructure, it’s a foundation for America’s future, and that’s a future that for people in this part of the nation will have more affordable, more reliable and more secure American energy.
“We have some of the largest demand in the country, right here, and a little piece of infrastructure was fought and protested, as opposed to embraced and celebrated, but today we’re here to celebrate it,” Burgum added.
The project, which will be built by Williams Companies, has long been opposed by green activists and was rejected multiple times by state leaders over environmental concerns before Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed off on the natural-gas pipeline in November.
The turnaround came after President Trump strongly pushed for the approvals even as pipeline opponents worry it will pollute waterways.
Hochul did not attend the groundbreaking because her office said she instead attended a portrait unveiling for fellow Democrat and former President Joe Biden at Syracuse University, where he attended law school.
Williams CEO and President Chad Zamarin argued Tuesday natural gas prices are three times higher in New York than in other parts of the country because new supply hasn’t been built in more than a decade.
“The issue in New York is not a cost of supply, it is truly just a lack of infrastructure and an inability to deliver natural gas to New York when it is needed most today,” he said.
The new 26-inch diameter pipeline will help haul natural gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey, traveling underwater in the Raritan Bay and Lower New York Bay, according to the state’s Department of Conservation.
The pipeline will reach about 3 miles off the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens with about 23.5 miles of the work underwater, the state agency said.
“What we stand here today is a battle that began almost a decade ago to build an expansion of the natural gas coming from Pennsylvania into New York, so that New Yorkers and Long Islanders can have lower cost bills and, more importantly, greater job opportunities,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.
Environmental Protection Administration administrator Lee Zeldin, a former Long Island congressman and one-time Republican gubernatorial candidate, slammed state leaders for trying to reach unrealistic climate goals – but instead accused them of causing “extreme economic pain.”
“It’s about security. It’s about affordability,” he said of the project.
“And for a lot of New Yorkers, they hit that breaking point where they decide that they just can’t afford to survive here, and they’re fleeing to other places down south.”
