Tulsa’s Williams Cos. has won approval from federal energy regulators to move forward with a Northeast pipeline project with political ramifications involving the White House, New York’s governor and New York City activists.
Approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory commission came in a 61-page order more than six years after the company sought approval for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project.
FERC reissued a certificate to Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. to build 37-mile natural gas pipeline that would add to Transco’s system.
Transco, a subsidiary of Williams Cos. canceled the expansion project last year after FERC gave the company only until May 2024 to build and place the project into service reported E&E News.
The Transco transmission system extends from Texas, Louisiana, and the offshore Gulf of America area, through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, to its termini in the New York City metropolitan area.
The project would cut through parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. As OK Energy Today reported in August, hundreds of protesters marched in New York City. They opposed the Northeast Supply Enhancement project and called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to reject the Williams request.
But President Donald Trump also applied pressure on New York and other New England states to approve natural gas pipelines. He also wants another Williams project, the proposed 124-mile Constitution natural gas pipeline to be revived.