NY Legislature Spits in Face of Natural Gas, No New Connections
It’s not a good look for New York State that not long after Governor Kathy Hochul made a deal with President Trump to allow two natural gas pipelines to get built in return for allowing an offshore wind farm, the state legislature passed a bill that essentially spits in the face of the natural gas industry in the state. The Assembly passed A8888, already approved by the Senate as S8417, which forces new homes and businesses that want to connect to the natural gas line that runs down their street to pay the full cost of connecting—$10,000 or more. Meaning if Gov. Hochul signs it, no new natural gas customers will be added anywhere in the state. It is a de facto ban on connecting new customers to use natural gas in the so-called Empire State. Read More “NY Legislature Spits in Face of Natural Gas, No New Connections”
We spotted an op-ed appearing in the Lower Hudson Valley area of New York State (just north of New York City) that makes some great points. Frankly, they are points we’ve made here on MDN a number of times—how natural gas is critical to the Empire State. The op-ed points out that natural gas powers 60% of the homes in the state and powers over half of the state’s electricity generation. Yet the dunderheaded politicians (Democrats) in Albany insist on destroying fossil energy and replacing it with unreliable renewables. But we digress. The op-ed states that “New York will not grow without natural gas. It’s just that simple.” What’s so unusual (“man bites dog”) about this op-ed is that it was written by the Chairman and President of the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium (NOWRDC)! 
The Republicans in Congress have not wasted any time in addressing the ongoing tragedy of states (and municipalities) banning fracking or the right to choose which energy source (like natural gas) to use. We happened to spot details about two new bills just introduced in Congress, one by New York Rep. Claudia Tenney, which targets states like her own that ban fracking by denying the state federal funding as long as the ban remains in place. The other bill was introduced by West Virginia Senator Jim Justice (and Babydog!) along with Nick Langworthy (from NY) in the House to prohibit states or local governments from banning an energy service’s connection, reconnection, modification, installation, or expansion based on the type or source of energy to be delivered. Essentially, you can’t ban the use of natural gas either statewide or locally. 
President Trump’s version of his conversations with New York Governor Kathy Hochul was correct: She caved. Yesterday, pipeline giant Williams filed a 246-page request (below) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expedite the reissuance of a certificate for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, a billion-dollar-plus project designed to increase Transco pipeline capacity and flows of Marcellus gas heading into New York City and other northeastern markets. NESE is one of two projects, along with the Constitution Pipeline, on which Hochul “caved” in a deal with Trump (see 
Big Green is NOT happy with the prospect that New York Governor Kathy Hochul is rumored to have “caved” and traded approvals for two natural gas pipelines—the Constitution and Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE)—in return for building a $5 billion boondoggle wind farm off the coast of Long Island. As we reported today in a related post (Williams Files Request Asking FERC to Reissue NESE Cert in NY, NJ), Hochul did cave and agreed to allow these two pipeline projects, provided they meet federal and state requirements. Prior to the news breaking (via the New York Times and other outlets), Big Green, comprising Food & Water Watch, the NRDC, NYPIRG, Frack Action, and Catskill Mountainkeeper, issued a joint press release warning Hochul that she should not allow these pipelines…or else. 
The effort by the Trump administration to build both the Constitution Pipeline and the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project continues to pick up steam. Just yesterday, we told you that there was a public disagreement between the White House and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul regarding whether she agreed to a quid pro quo deal to allow the two pipelines in return for restarting an offshore windmill project (see 
We’ve got a “he said, she said” situation between President Donald Trump and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Last week MDN brought you the news that, following several conversations over the previous weekend between Trump and Hochul, that the President had agreed to allow New York to restart a $5 billion windmill project off the coast of Long Island, in return for allowing two pipeline projects to get built in the state, one of them the long-stalled Constitution Pipeline (see 
It is “The Art of the Deal” with Donald J. Trump. Only DJT could pull off such a miracle. We are referring to a deal just struck (on Monday) with New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Trump will allow New York to blow $5 billion on an idiotic offshore wind project (off the coast of Long Island) in return for Hochul allowing the construction of two long-stalled pipeline projects: The Constitution Pipeline and the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project, part of the Transco pipeline system. We had no idea NESE was on the table as part of a potential deal! 
In early April, President Trump signed four executive orders (EOs) dealing with energy issues (see 
In February, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) creating the National Energy Dominance Council, directing the new council to move quickly to increase domestic oil and gas production (see 
Donald Trump’s new EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin (from Long Island), has been a smash hit in his new role. He continues to delight and surprise. Zeldin is aggressively rolling back many of the over-the-top regulations adopted during the evil Biden years, regulations that don’t improve the environment but only serve to destroy American businesses. In a recent interview with the New York Post, Zeldin did not hold back on the lunacy of New York’s climate law and how it hurts the most vulnerable in the state. He called NY’s policies “delusional” and a “catastrophe.” 
We spotted a couple of stories, one by PBS and another by the financial publication Barron’s, covering the “groundswell” of opposition to resurrecting the 124-mile Pennsylvania-to-New York Constitution Pipeline project. According to a letter signed by “233 environmental and community groups,” the proposed pipeline poses “a serious threat to state sovereignty.” Here’s the first thing to note: Enviro-lefties file paperwork to form a “group” of one or two people. It looks great on letterhead to list hundreds of organizations, implying thousands of people. However, it would be more accurate to say “233 individuals” instead of 233 groups of people. At any rate, we will repeat an observation we have made almost since beginning to write the MDN site in 2009: Many in the anti-fracking and anti-pipeline movement are old (sometimes young) hippies looking to relive the glory days of Vietnam protests. 
Yesterday, President Trump signed four more executive orders (EOs) dealing with energy issues. Three of the four EOs targeted reviving the declining coal industry, which Trump calls “beautiful, clean coal.” We’ll briefly cover the coal EOs below. However, it was the noncoal EO that caught our attention. Trump signed the Protecting American Energy from State Overreach EO, which removes unlawful and burdensome state-level impediments to domestic energy production. Trump tasked Attorney General Pam Bondi to challenge state laws that may be “unconstitutional, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable” to go after states like New York, which is mentioned explicitly in the EO. 
Never in our wildest dreams did we think that Donald Trump winning a second term would result in the resurrection of the 124-mile Pennsylvania-to-New York Constitution Pipeline project. Yet, that prospect appears increasingly likely. We don’t want to offer false hope, but we can’t ignore the signs favoring the Constitution’s springing back to life. The latest sign? Two prominent leftwing mainstream media outlets, none other than the Washington Post and POLITICO, ran stories yesterday all but admitting that the liberal Democrat governors of New York and New England are in the process of caving and either have or soon will support the Constitution Pipeline project. It’s absolute magic!