Twenty years ago, the harbor off the Rockaway Peninsula had a different appearance. Living close to that beach for over fifty years, Joan Flynn describes the day she first saw a dolphin from the shore in the same way that someone might describe seeing a comet. She brings up humpbacks, oystercatchers, and gannets. Where her own children were unable to swim, her grandchildren can. Then she makes a slight change in tone. “And then along came Williams,” she stated in a recent NRDC interview.
Something greater than the annoyance of a single woman is captured in that one sentence. The Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline, or NESE (pronounced “nessy” by those who monitor it professionally), has returned. After being turned down three times between 2018 and 2020 by regulators in New York and New Jersey, the operator, Williams Companies, of Oklahoma, withdrew from the project. For a while, it appeared to be a closed chapter. It is no longer the case.
Politics, not the quiet kind, is largely responsible for the revival’s existence. The Trump administration stopped building Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 project off Long Island in April 2025. Governor Kathy Hochul had based a large portion of her energy strategy on this fully authorized offshore development. The stop-work order was lifted by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum thirty-three days later. Soon after, the White House declared that Hochul had “caved” and consented to allow the construction of two natural gas pipelines. Hochul disputes any such agreement. However, it is more difficult to dispute the timeline.
Both states issued the water quality certificates they had previously declined to provide by the fall of 2025. The technical specifications for the project remained unchanged. The dredging strategy remained unchanged. It was the same 23-mile route beneath New York–New Jersey Harbor. The same compressor station was intended for northern New Jersey. Washington was the change. “Both states have taken 180-degree turns from their previous legal and scientific determinations,” NRDC’s Mark Izeman told reporters, “and they’ve given no reasoned explanation for reversing course.”
Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on April 14, 2026, to begin construction on the project. Hochul failed to appear. With talk of $6 billion in anticipated electricity savings and new capacity for 2.3 million homes, the optics seemed purposeful—a Republican celebration on Democratic territory. Chad Zamarin, CEO of Williams, referred to it as “a $1 billion direct investment in the American worker.” Those figures might hold up. They might not, too. Once the gas begins to flow, pipeline savings forecasts have a history of softening.
Something else is noteworthy. Just months prior, the New York Public Service Commission, which approved NESE’s necessity, had determined that the state would not experience a shortage of supplies for at least fifteen years. According to Williams’s own documents, the pipeline would increase the supply of gas downstate by about 13%. Opponents refer to it as an expensive insurance policy against an imaginary issue. Public Citizen’s Tyson Slocum has protested the arrangement with federal regulators, calling it a “shakedown” overall. He claims that in a more subdued political environment, this would have been “a Watergate-level scandal.”
It’s difficult not to wonder what the courts will think of it. Earthjustice and NRDC have already filed a lawsuit, claiming the federal permit is based on stale demand forecasts and out-of-date cost estimates. According to Williams, the project is still scheduled to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2027. According to reports, the administration’s next priority is the Constitution pipeline, which has been blocked for years in upstate New York.
From the harbor’s edge, where the oysters are gradually returning thanks to the Billion Oyster Project, it seems like something delicate is being put to the test once more. The question is whether the cleanup will endure the construction. Flynn isn’t holding out to find out. “To see it become a cesspool,” she replied, “it’s horrifying.” The pipeline is on its way. Every indication suggests that the battle is far from over.
