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Ruffalo Supports 108-Mile Walk Against Constitution Pipeline
A coalition of environmental groups kicked off a 108-mile “Women’s Water Walk” on Saturday, strolling the route of the proposed Constitution Pipeline from Oquaga Creek State Park near Bainbridge to Schoharie over 16 days — with Hollywood’s Mark Ruffalo, Karenna Gore, and folk singer Dar Williams lending their names to the effort. It is a lovely walk through some of the prettiest country in New York (we grew up here, we should know!). The so-called water walk is also, as energy policy, roughly as consequential as a bake sale. Read More “Ruffalo Supports 108-Mile Walk Against Constitution Pipeline”
Big Green scored a win yesterday — but not the win they’re telling you they got. On Tuesday, September 8, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated the Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification (WQC) that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) issued last November for Williams/Transco’s Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project — the $1 billion, 400,000 Dth/d expansion that carries Marcellus gas from Pennsylvania, across New Jersey, under Raritan Bay, and into New York City (see 
In April, we told you the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was taking a fresh look at the revived Constitution Pipeline and the associated Wright Interconnect project, and that the agency had to decide whether a relatively quick Environmental Assessment (EA) would do the job — or whether it would drag the projects through a full-blown, years-long Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). We got our answer on August 21. FERC staff issued the EA for both projects — 79 pages plus appendices — and the bottom line is the one supporters have been waiting on: building Constitution “would not constitute a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.” In plain English — no significant impact. No years-long supplemental EIS is needed. 
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit last Friday slammed the door on Big Green’s attempt to yank the New York water permit for the Williams/Transco Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline. Six environmental groups asked the court to vacate the Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification (WQC) that the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued in November 2025. In a summary order issued Aug. 21, a three-judge panel said no. The permit stands. NESE, already under construction, keeps building. 
Virginia’s environmental cops have hit Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company (Transco) with a $179,068.50 civil charge over erosion and sediment control violations on the Pittsylvania County stretch of the Southeast Supply Enhancement (SSE) Project — the single most important new outlet for Marcellus/Utica gas heading south. 
Something happened over the past ten days that ought to look awfully familiar to anyone who was around Marcellus country in 2009. A single advocacy shop dug a permit out of a state filing cabinet, handed it to a friendly reporter at the New York Times, and within a week roughly two dozen outlets were running the same three sentences about Amazon becoming “the largest single source of pollution in the United States.” It’s not a coincidence, it’s not organic, and it’s not staying in Texas. Big Green has told us, in print, that the data center fight is the anti-fracking playbook run a second time — and one of the projects already on their list belongs to Williams, in Ohio, burning Utica gas. 
Devon Energy and Williams spent the last week of July doing something that doesn’t show up on a reserve report: teaching northeastern Pennsylvania teenagers how the gas business actually works. Then, on July 30, the Pennsylvania Chamber Foundation named both companies “Greatest Places to Intern in PA.” Six days later, Devon CEO Clay Gaspar told analysts he’s fielding “no shortage of incoming phone calls” about which assets he might sell — with the Marcellus at the top of everybody’s list. Which raises a question nobody on Wall Street is asking: who inherits the workforce machine? 
Williams dropped its second quarter 2026 results after the close on Monday, August 3, and held the analyst call Tuesday morning. The headline numbers are good: adjusted EBITDA of $1.921 billion (up 6%), GAAP net income of $827 million (up 51%), and a raised full-year guidance midpoint of $8.4 billion. Wall Street liked it. But the story for MDN readers isn’t in the headline. It’s buried in the volume tables on page 8 of the release, in a capital spending line nobody read out loud, and in two new Transco projects in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that got about eleven seconds of airtime on the call. 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is close to issuing an environmental assessment for the Constitution Pipeline, a 125-mile greenfield pipeline from the Marcellus gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA, to Schoharie County, NY (see 
We stumbled across an article by East Daley Analytics that is a real eye-opener for us. East Daley analyzed 13 major public G&P (gathering and processing) operators (i.e., pipeline companies). They found that Expand Energy (created by the merger of Chesapeake Energy with Southwestern Energy), with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica and the Louisiana Haynesville, accounts for 52% of DT Midstream’s gathering volumes, 32% of Williams’, and 21% of Energy Transfer’s throughput. Yikes! Just one company. 
Last November, New Jersey (and New York) issued a federal Clean Water Act permit to build the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project (see 
Pipeline giant Williams announced a $5.34 billion investment led by Blackstone Credit & Insurance, in partnership with Apollo and KKR, to fund its five behind-the-meter Power Innovation projects: Socrates, Apollo, Aquila, Socrates the Younger, and Neo. All five projects are located in Ohio and will use Utica (or Marcellus) shale gas. In exchange for the money, the investors receive a 49% noncontrolling ownership stake, while Williams retains 51% ownership and operational control, plus a buyout right between years 7 and 14. While the headline numbers focus on high-finance metrics, the practical, on-the-ground effect of this deal directly reshapes the Appalachian natural gas landscape, pipeline dynamics, and the regional race to power the AI-driven data center boom. 
The Trump administration and its officials continue to aggressively push the Williams 125-mile Constitution Pipeline project, which would stretch from the prolific shale gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA, into and through New York State, to Schoharie County, NY, to move Marcellus gas into New York State and New England. In June, Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin visited Binghamton to advocate for reviving the long-stalled project (see 
Williams’ Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (SESE) is a 55-mile, 42-inch-wide pipeline that will run through Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and Rockingham, Guilford, Forsyth, and Davidson counties in North Carolina. Construction for SESE started March 2, 2026, according to FERC filings. Transco (Williams) received its final federal authorization and a Notice to Proceed, and crews mobilized in early spring. Initial activities have included tree felling, installation of acoustic barriers, and test drilling in preparation for blasting. Antis finally gave up trying to block construction of SESE in June (see