The bid by Williams to win approval to construct a natural gas pipeline into New York was met with opposition by hundreds of demonstrators over the weekend.
The Tulsa-based company awaits an August 16 deadline for public comment but if the Saturday morning demonstration was any sign, the firm will face some obvious opposition, much like it did when three other applications were denied by the state in the past several years. It was first rejected when Williams Partners in Tulsa introduced it in 2016 through its subsidiary, Transco.
Among the speakers was Lieutenant Gov. Antonio Delgado as he addressed more than 400 marchers who paraded across the Brooklyn Bridge.
The demonstrators marched against a handful of projects involving the construction of natural gas pipelines into the state. One was the Northeast Supply Enhancement protect, an extension of the Williams Transco pipeline. It would be built off the coast of Staten Island and is a project supported by the Trump administration. The protesters also opposed another Williams project, the proposed Williams Constitution pipeline, which was also recently revived after being rejected during the Biden administration.
But Larua Shindell, the New York State director for the Food and Water Watch argued against it. “That pipeline would carry fracked gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey and 23 miles of pipeline along the coast of New York City, passing through Raritan Bay and hugging the shores of Staten Island, Coney Island and the Rockaways.”
She noted the NESE pipeline had been denied “a whopping three times by New York state.
“Our Department of Environmental Conservation reported themselves that the pipeline would have devastating effects on New York’s water quality, the harbor’s marine life, and it would fly in the face of New York’s climate law,” added Shindell, according to a report published by Silive.com.
Eric Weltman, a senior organizer for Food & Water Watch also spoke to the demonstrators.
“You’re seeing here evidence of a statewide movement that is committed to moving New York off fossil fuels. [We are] committed to pressuring Governor Hochul to stand up to [President Donald] Trump and block these dangerous, costly, and unnecessary projects.”
Weltman’s group, Food & Water Watch also claimed in a press release the gasline and others threaten clean wataer, endanger frontline communities and violate New York’s climate law.
“New gas pipelines also fly in the face of scientific consensus: phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to prevent increasingly catastrophic climate disasters. The Williams NESE project alone would increase climate-heating pollution annually by an estimated 8 million tons.”
Other groups helped organize the demonstration including Climate Families NYC, Rise and Resist and the New York Public Interest Research Group Fund.
“That pipeline would carry fracked gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey and 23 miles of pipeline along the coast of New York City, passing through Raritan Bay and hugging the shores of Staten Island, Coney Island and the Rockaways,” said Laura Shindell, the New York State director for the Food and Water Watch.
A report by Silive.com indicated that National Grid customers, including those on Staten Island would bear some of the cost with a 3.5% increase in their utility bills.
Some of the protesters also aimed some of their resentment at Gov. Kathy Hochul who had reportedly agreed to give consideration to the Williams project in return for the Trump administration easing its opposition to offshore wind farm developments.
One opponent, who is running in a challenge to Hochul in the 2026 primary elelction claimed, “We have politicians like Governor Hochul who is more concerned with serving herself, and power and self preservation than actually serving the public. A gas-to-wind deal is foolish on its face, it makes zero sense.”
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