As New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tries to convince President Donald Trump to support congestion pricing in Manhattan, there’s something the president wants from the governor: her approval of a natural-gas pipeline long considered dead.
The Democratic governor traveled to the White House on Friday for her second Oval Office meeting with the Republican president in three weeks. A Hochul spokesperson said the governor pushed Trump on everything from tariffs to redeveloping Penn Station to backing off his efforts to block a congestion toll in Manhattan.
The president gave a major hint Thursday about what he may be looking for in return: the controversial Constitution Pipeline project, which New York state effectively blocked before Hochul took office. But environmentalists — who played a key role in shuttering the project in the first place — are warning that they’d fight any move to approve it, especially if it gets caught up in political horse-trading.
“ It would be a huge mistake for Gov. Hochul to try to push [the pipeline] through,” said Wes Gillingham, associate director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, one of the organizations that led the opposition to the project more than five years ago.
Hochul has spent weeks trying to convince Trump of the benefits of Manhattan’s congestion-pricing toll, which helps fund the New York City public-transit system by charging vehicles to drive below 60th Street. Trump’s administration has ordered the MTA to stop charging the toll — which is $9 for passenger vehicles during daytime hours — an order the transit authority is fighting in court.
The governor also needs federal support to move ahead with plans to renovate Penn Station, which is owned by Amtrak, a federal entity.
Trump built his image as a dealmaker in New York’s rough-and-tumble real-estate industry. And he first started hinting at what he wants from Hochul a month ago, when he told reporters in the Oval Office that he wants to revisit the Constitution Pipeline project — which the project’s backers put on ice in 2020 after New York declined to issue a key water-quality permit.
The president doubled down on Thursday when he told reporters he would be discussing the issue with Hochul in the Oval Office.
“ I hope we don't have to use the extraordinary powers of the federal government to get it done,” Trump said. “If we have to, we will, but I don't think we'll have to.”
Federal courts sided with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration at the time, which denied the project a crucial environmental permit. The Supreme Court declined to take up the case, effectively mothballing the pipeline.
The new pipeline would link gas fields in Pennsylvania to Schoharie County, stretching 124 miles through New York’s Southern Tier and western Catskills regions. From there, it would connect to existing pipelines that would carry the natural gas throughout New England.
Supporters say it would help increase supply in the Northeast and lower consumer costs, while opponents — including a network of activists that pushed Cuomo to ban large-scale fracking in 2014 — say it would hurt the state’s efforts to wean itself off environmentally damaging fossil fuels.
In a statement after the Oval Office meeting Friday, Hochul spokesperson Jerrel Harvey listed off a series of issues the governor and president discussed, including Penn Station, congestion pricing, tariffs and “energy policy.” He did not specifically mention the pipeline.
“While no formal agreements or decisions were reached, it was a productive conversation and we look forward to continuing the dialogue in the coming weeks,” Harvey said.
What isn’t clear is whether the companies behind the original Constitution Pipeline project are still in a position to move ahead.
When the Oklahoma-based Williams Cos. and its partners shelved its pipeline plans in 2020, the company revealed the project lost more than $300 million in 2019, according to the Associated Press.
Williams issued a company statement Friday thanking Trump for his “commitment to addressing the Northeast’s natural gas supply constraints.” The company signaled it would only move ahead with the Constitution project if Hochul is on board.
“We are interested in building the Constitution pipeline, provided there is sufficient customer demand and support from Northeast governors, including Gov. Hochul, to mitigate the risk of costly permitting delays, court battles, and injunctions during construction,” the company’s statement read.
Hochul’s support, however, remains a big “if.”
Environmentalists and other critics spent years pushing back against the pipeline project, organizing a number of rallies and protests throughout the state urging Cuomo and the state Department of Environmental Conservation to withhold support. At virtually all of Cuomo's appearances, the protesters could be relied on to show up and press him to kill the project.
One 2016 rally in Albany featured Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who addressed a crowd of hundreds from the eastern steps of the state Capitol before they marched to the DEC’s headquarters.
“You know what this pipeline is about," said Kennedy, who is now Trump’s health and human services secretary. "This is not about making America a better place. It’s about enriching a few billionaires and shareholders of these companies."
Moneen Nasmith, a senior attorney for Earthjustice, a nonprofit that helped lead the legal battle against the pipeline, said pipeline projects can be “incredibly damaging to really important waterways and wetlands” that provide drinking water to New Yorkers.
“Allowing a giant project to just slash through those waterways and wetlands without even considering the consequences would be extremely disappointing,” Nasmith said.