{"id":197392,"date":"2026-04-14T21:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197392\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T21:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:44:08","slug":"trump-officials-hail-innovation-over-regulation-in-nyc-as-work-starts-on-pipeline-that-irked-green-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197392\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump officials hail ‘innovation over regulation’ in NYC as work starts on pipeline that irked green activists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump administration officials hailed \u201cinnovation over regulation\u201d Tuesday at a ceremonial groundbreaking for a natural gas pipeline that was staunchly opposed by \u201cgreen\u201d activists for a decade.<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis<\/a><\/p>\n

The Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline project will run underwater off the city\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we\u2019re celebrating is innovation over regulation, and we\u2019re celebrating perseverance and common sense,\u201d he said along with other Trump cabinet leaders and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican running for governor.<\/p>\n

Chad Zamarin, Lee Zeldin, and Doug Burgum at the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) groundbreaking ceremony. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re here to celebrate isn\u2019t just infrastructure, it\u2019s a foundation for America\u2019s future, and that\u2019s a future that for people in this part of the nation will have more affordable, more reliable and more secure American energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019re here to celebrate it,\u201d Burgum added.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> before Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed off on the natural-gas pipeline in November.<\/p>\n

The turnaround came after President Trump<\/a> strongly pushed for the approvals even as pipeline opponents worry it will pollute waterways. <\/p>\n

An interior photograph of the metering room for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Williams CEO and President Chad Zamarin argued Tuesday natural gas prices are\u00a0three times higher in New York than in other parts of the country because new supply hasn\u2019t been built in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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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\u2019s Department of Conservation.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Illustration of the pipeline. NY Post Design<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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,\u201d Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 but instead accused them of causing \u201cextreme economic pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about security. It\u2019s about affordability,\u201d he said of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for a lot of New Yorkers, they hit that breaking point where they decide that they just can\u2019t afford to survive here, and they\u2019re fleeing to other places down south.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump administration officials hailed \u201cinnovation over regulation\u201d Tuesday at a ceremonial groundbreaking for a natural gas pipeline that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4762,19338,57,9,56,63,65,64,16970,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-197392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-energy","9":"tag-lee-zeldin","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-pipeline","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}