A controversial plan to build an underwater gas pipeline skirting the shores of New York City is charging forward on schedule, three high-ranking Trump administration officials said on Tuesday at a groundbreaking ceremony.
Under a bright blue sky and in front of a gigantic American flag that flapped in the wind, energy executives, labor leaders and cabinet secretaries celebrated the project on the grounds of a former World War II naval air station in coastal Brooklyn, surrounded by the city’s largest natural marshland.
The White House officials spoke of energy independence and abundance, patriotism and affordability. But environmental and climate activists protesting the plan, which was previously rejected repeatedly by the state, have spoken about global warming and threats to local waterways.
Doug Burgum, the Interior secretary, described “a future where America leads the world, where we’ve got enough energy to not only support affordability and prosperity at home, but to bring peace in the world, because we can sell energy to our friends and allies so that they can stop buying from those that wage war or terrorism.”
And Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, spoke of President Trump’s agenda to fast-track fossil fuel projects throughout the United States, especially in the Northeast, where aging infrastructure has not kept up with soaring energy demand. Mr. Zeldin recalled a meeting at the Oval Office in early 2025 during which Mr. Trump “specifically” asked about the underwater pipeline for New York.
“He wanted it built instantly,” Mr. Zeldin said.
The project, called the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline, will cost about $1 billion to build. Once complete, it will deliver gas from Pennsylvania to the New York City region, running for about 23 miles under Raritan Bay in New Jersey and New York Harbor.
Environmental and climate advocates who oppose the project say it threatens local underwater ecosystems and runs counter to New York State’s resolve to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The state is not meeting the goals to reduce emissions that were outlined in its 2019 climate law, which could be weakened soon.
“This interrupts our Clean Water Act; it disrupts our climate law,” said Kim Fraczek, the director of Sane Energy, one of several environmental groups that were protesting at the event on Tuesday.
Laura Shindell, the New York state director at Food & Water Watch, another nonprofit group protesting outside the ceremony, said that stopping the pipeline and saving the climate law were one and the same. She called on state leaders “to commit to defending the climate law in its entirety.”
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Last fall, before the pipeline was approved, 10 Democratic members of Congress, led by Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, sent a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul expressing their concerns.
“This project, which would bury 17 miles of fracked gas pipeline under the ocean floor in ecologically sensitive waters near Staten Island and the Rockaway Peninsula, poses significant and far-reaching implications for public health, environmental justice communities, climate goals and marine ecosystems,” the letter said, referring to hydraulic fracturing, a process that involves injecting pressurized liquid into rock formations to extract oil and natural gas.
Williams Companies, an energy infrastructure firm in Tulsa, Okla., will begin construction of the project, which will connect to an existing pipeline network at the old naval station. From there, National Grid, which provides gas to about two million customers in New York City and Long Island, will take over the product and manage its distribution.
The pipeline had been rejected three times in the past seven years because of environmental concerns, but was approved last fall by New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation. The agency is overseen by Ms. Hochul, who has been navigating a surge in demand for energy and increasing federal pressure to promote the oil and gas industry. A few months earlier, Ms. Hochul had helped persuade Mr. Trump to abandon plans to shut down an offshore wind project in New York. Soon after the meeting, the proposal for the pipeline resurfaced again.
Ken Lovett, the governor’s communications adviser for energy and the environment, said that Ms. Hochul had consistently denied that a deal had been struck with the president. Mr. Lovett said the governor was open to all types of energy projects, including those involving natural gas, as long as they went through an impartial review.
Ms. Hochul was not at the event on Tuesday, nor was anyone representing her office. But Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who is running against Ms. Hochul for governor, was there.
“I embrace this project, but we need more of it,” said Mr. Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, adding that he would expand pipelines and open up New York State to fracking should he win the election (fracked gas is banned in New York; the new pipeline will deliver gas that is fracked in neighboring Pennsylvania).
Many climate activists question the claim — expressed repeatedly on Tuesday — that abundant gas will lower energy bills. They argue that customers will end up footing the bill for the project, because consumers pay for the construction and maintenance of gas infrastructure. In its long-term plan released last July, National Grid predicted that rates would rise by about 3.5 percent because of the pipeline.
Ms. Fraczek said that in a few weeks, National Grid and state regulators would start reviewing possible rate increases, and that her group would be present during the negotiations “to make sure that we do not pay for this unnecessary fracked gas pipeline.”
A coalition of environmental groups, represented by the nonprofit Earthjustice, has sued New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, seeking to stop the project. But the implication on Tuesday was that execution of the plan was imminent. Construction on the pipeline, officials said, is scheduled to begin this summer, and should be complete by the end of 2027.
“This is getting done fast,” Mr. Zeldin said. And it’s only the beginning, he added. Williams Companies is proposing a second pipeline, called the Constitution, that would deliver natural gas from Pennsylvania to New England, running underground through upstate New York. That pipeline has yet to be approved.
Hilary Howard is a Times reporter covering how the New York City region is adapting to climate change and other environmental challenges.
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