They don't build basements in Breezy Point anymore, but Ed Power has one. Breezy Point is a remote stretch of New York City along the coast of the Rockaway Peninsula, colloquially known as the “Irish Riviera.” Power, a longtime firefighter who retired as a deputy chief, grew up in the neighborhood and raised his children there. For decades, his basement caused no problems.
But over the past 15 years, regular floods have begun here, and the water level has steadily risen higher. Breezy Point was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, but Power persevered and returned. “The only reason I'm here is because of the ocean. I see it, I swim in it,” he said. “And the water keeps rising. One more Sandy and I'm out of here.”
Now Power sees another threat to the beach: Williams' Northeast Supply Improvement Pipeline, or NESE, which has been revived and is undergoing rapid development over the past few months. The pipeline would join a 10,000-mile network that would stretch into Texas and carry gas from Pennsylvania through New York Harbor and end at Rockaway Beach, where it would connect with an existing pipeline off the coast of Long Island.
“Everything about this is horror,” Power said. Since 2018, the NESE pipeline proposal has been rejected three times because it did not meet New York City water quality standards. The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) warned that its construction would release decades-old mercury, copper and other pollutants dumped off the city's coast, threatening marine life and the health of local swimmers.
Even so, Williams recently reintroduced essentially the same proposal, upsetting pipeline opponents who are concerned that the new DEC head, appointed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in May, might change course.
That's because the White House has stepped in and said that's what it expects Governor Hochul to do. In April, President Trump's Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered a halt to a $5 billion wind energy project off the coast of New York, but a month later the administration reversed the situation. Administration speaks they struck a deal with Hochul, asking her to allow the pipeline application to proceed in exchange for allowing construction of the wind energy project to proceed.
Governor Hochul denies any quid pro quo, although Anders Opedal, chief executive of the wind energy project developer, said The Financial Times said the pipeline was “a big help” in restarting offshore development. Hochul called him on May 18 to say she had found a solution to the federal shutdown order; The next day the order was canceled. Although neither deal was ever confirmed, Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, filed a formal complaint calling the proposed deal an “ominous political upheaval.”
Gov. Hochula's office and Williams did not respond to requests for comment by Monday evening's deadline. A DEC spokesperson said it is “committed to protecting public health and the environment and subjects all permit applications to a rigorous review process.” They did not say whether the company plans to reject the resubmitted pipeline application.
The Williams Pipeline proposal was accelerated in early July when the DEC announced it would hold a 30-day public comment period without a hearing, which experts said was unusual for a project of this size. (Previous applications included a 45-day public comment period and two public hearings.) The public comment period was extended to 45 days after opposition from environmental groups, but the decision on the hearing was final.
At the time of publication, the pipeline remains in limbo. Environmental activists are concerned that the shortened process is a sign that the administration has changed its mind on the proposal, despite evidence previously used to justify its cancellation.
“The impact of pipelines on water quality is the same, the science is the same. The climate science is the same or worse. Pipelines are still an expensive [piece] The question is, is the governor deliberately going to build something that will be considered dangerous, expensive and unpopular?”
A report the Institute for Energy Economics and Fiscal Analysis (IEEFA) found that the NESE pipeline would cost taxpayers approximately $1.25 billion and would not provide permanent jobs; only 9 percent of temporary construction jobs will be located in New York City. National Grid, a British company that operates New York's gas supply. claims that the pipeline is needed to ensure reliable gas supply during extreme weather conditions, citing the cold snap during Winter Storm Elliott in 2022, during which New York City came close to losing power.
National Grid also pointed to rising energy demands from large data centers being planned by the country's largest technology companies, as well as vague plans by the U.S. Department of Energy to build a data center at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. But much of the data center hype may be exaggerated; nationwide, utilities are dealing with duplicate requests, and an IEEFA report estimates that up to 50 percent of planned data centers may never materialize.
“I can't say these data centers don't need energy. But that's how you're going to justify polluting my water, killing my firefighters, and warming the planet?” said Ed Power, a Rockaway Beach resident. “Not in my eyes. I can't argue with that.”
