The Williams Cos. Constitution pipeline project designed to bring more natural gas to New York State was the focus of some political comments made by President Trump this week when he accused New York Gov. Kathy Hochul of reneging on the pipelines-for-wind deal reportedly reached last week.
As Politico reported, Trump’s accusation came after he attended the NBA finals game in New York City when asked about the status of the 124-mile pipeline.
“We’re getting held up by the governor of New York,” Trump said about the Constitution pipeline after Monday’s NBA finals game. “She made a deal with us to allow us to build it and she’s holding it up, and Connecticut is suffering and all of New England is suffering, and upstate New York is really suffering. We made a deal with her, and she broke the deal,” Trump said. “We made a deal. We’re going to give her a couple of windmills sometimes, because she likes windmills, which is a big mistake.”
Hochul’s team pushed back on the president’s claim, reported Politico.
“This is completely false as the President looks for yet another way to feed his obsession with killing offshore wind,” said Hochul spokesperson Ken Lovett. “Under Governor Hochul, New York will continue to be a clean energy and climate leader, even in the face of unending roadblocks put up by Washington Republicans.”
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin joined in the conversation as OK Energy Today reported. During a visit in Binghamton, New York, Zeldin urged New York to give final approval to the project.
“It’s not like we don’t use natural gas and we’re proposing some new energy source that is controversial, and we’re not used to it,” Zeldin said. “It is our primary source of energy right now, natural gas.”
Tulsa-based Williams Cos. has been fighting New York for years to construction the pipeline designed to transport natural gas from Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, to Schoharie County, New York, passing through Broome, Chenango and Delaware counties in New York. Williams is still attempting to get federal energy regulators to reissue the project’s certificate.
The EPA administrator said transporting gas through this pipeline would be an upgrade over doing it by truck or by train, providing financial stability in the process.
