Trump Administration Allows Construction to Resume on $5 Billion Wind Farm off Long Island

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Laura Nahmias and Josh Saul (Bloomberg) —

The Trump administration is allowing construction to resume on a $5 billion wind farm off Long Island after reaching a deal with New York Governor Kathy Hochul that could allow new natural gas pipelines to be built in the state.

The agreement to lift a stop-work order on Equinor ASA’s Empire Wind 1 project came after weeks of talks, including at least three conversations between Hochul and President Donald Trump over the weekend, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the conversations were private.

In return, Hochul signaled Monday that New York will not stand in the way of new energy projects — a move some of the people said opens the door for more pipelines to bring gas from the Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania. Such projects have long been thwarted by opposition from Northeast states over concerns about their impact on water quality and climate change, effectively limiting gas supplies in the region and driving up electricity and heating bills.

Chief among them is the Constitution Pipeline that Williams Cos. scrapped in 2020 and the company’s Northeast Supply Enhancement project, which would have delivered gas to New York and New Jersey but was effectively abandoned last year.

The deal between Trump and Hochul, a Democrat, marks a stunning reprieve for Equinor’s massive wind farm project that appeared to be on the brink of being scrapped after the US Interior Department halted construction last month. It also breathes potential life into pipeline projects that the industry has long written off as dead.

Hochul praised the administration’s decision in a statement Monday, adding that she had “reaffirmed that New York will work with the Administration and private entities on new energy projects that meet the legal requirements under New York law.” Hochul cast that support for new energy projects as part of a bid to “ensure reliability and affordability for consumers.”

While the deal buoyed hopes for a single wind farm proposed about 20 miles southeast of New York City, it hasn’t lifted the deep sense of anxiety hanging over the nascent offshore wind industry. The sector was struggling with inflation and supply chain challenges even before the administration began actively scrutinizing previously approved projects.

Analysts cautioned against interpreting the development as a major policy shift, predicting that projects nearer to construction will have an easier time advancing than those in earlier phases of review. The agreement also sets the stage for more transactional exchanges between project advocates — including state governors — and the White House.

We “would not ignore implications for possible wind-for-pipeline negotiations,” analysts at ClearView Energy Partners LLC said in a research note Tuesday morning.

New York officials have long seen offshore wind farms as critical to delivering emission-free electricity to the state, and Equinor had secured final approval and permits under former President Joe Biden. But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum froze work on it in April, saying its potential impacts hadn’t been studied enough.

With the Empire project on a knife’s edge last week, jobs appeared to be key in tipping it back to life. In a social media post, Hochul highlighted some 1,500 union jobs hanging in the balance, and organized labor advocates had been lobbying administration officials for a reprieve.

Hochul said the administration’s decision to lift the stop-work order came after “countless conversations” over the fate of the project. Burgum said in a post on X that he was “encouraged” by the governor’s “willingness to move forward on critical pipeline capacity.”

The seeds for the agreement were planted in March, when Hochul met with Trump to discuss the Constitution Pipeline and other concerns. Trump has vowed to secure construction of gas projects in the region, casting them as essential to lowering the cost of electricity and heating in a region that struggles with supply.

Williams didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. In March, the company said it was interested in building the pipeline as long as it had support from Hochul and other leaders in the region.

Trump’s fierce opposition to wind farms — dating back more than a decade when he fought one planned within view of his golf resort in Scotland — and his full-throated support for more US oil and natural gas projects set the stage for a deal.

New York and other Northeast states have wielded special water-quality certification powers they hold under federal law to thwart planned gas projects in the region. Yet they are also looking to offshore wind projects planned near their coastlines to provide emission-free electricity to meet surging demand.

The Constitution pipeline project was a joint venture between Williams Cos., Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Duke Energy Corp. and AltaGas Ltd. The 124-mile line would have brought gas from the shale fields of Pennsylvania to New York. It received federal approval in 2014.

Equinor’s Chief Executive Officer Anders Opedal visited the White House earlier this month to lobby on behalf of the project. The company was informed late on Monday by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that the project can resume.

The delay happened at “the least favorable time when we had 11 ships out at sea and on standby, so the project hasn’t become better by having a month’s pause,” Opedal said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

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