COMMENTARY: As energy prices soar, blue states abandon green agenda

Who has the natural gas contract for Hades? Because it may have just frozen over.

After decades of anti-fossil-fuel policies and climate-change catastrophe politics, the state of New York — home of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — just gave the go-ahead for a major natural gas pipeline project.

A project supported by President Donald Trump.

Satan, grab your ice skates.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation on Nov. 7 approved a water quality permit for the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline project — a permit it rejected three times during Trump’s first term.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, who this year declared climate change a “crisis” and pledged a zero-emissions New York government by 2030, now says, “We need to govern in reality.”

“We are facing war against clean energy from Washington Republicans, including our New York delegation, which is why we have adopted an all-of-the-above approach that includes a continued commitment to renewables and nuclear power to ensure grid reliability and affordability,” Hochul said in a statement.

Environmental activists such as New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado are outraged. “She did not just approve a fossil fuel project. She made a moral choice,” said Delgado, Hochul’s likely 2026 Democratic primary opponent, adding that she had failed “a test of moral leadership.”

But in American politics, few issues are as powerful right now as high prices. And the Empire State is facing a future of increasing consumer costs without an increase in energy supply.

The pipeline will transport natural gas from Pennsylvania to New York’s Rockaway Peninsula and Queens. According to Williams, the energy company developing the pipeline, it will “increase the system capacity by about 400,000 dekatherms per day. That’s enough natural gas to meet the daily needs of approximately 2.3 million homes.”

Dena Wiggins, president and CEO of the Natural Gas Supply Association, said there has been a noticeable shift among elected officials away from anti-fossil-fuel rhetoric and toward energy-policy reality. “What’s finally coming into the conversation is a dose of reality,” Wiggins said. “In order to deliver energy affordably and reliably, natural gas has to be in the mix.”

More proof can be found next door in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Gov. Josh Shapiro and fellow Democrats in Harrisburg just abandoned years of efforts to put the Keystone State into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a carbon cap-and-fee system.

And recent polling from Fairleigh Dickinson University found that even among Democrats in the blue enclave of New Jersey, there is growing support for natural gas. Overall, 64 percent of the state’s voters now back building new natural gas plants. That includes 46 percent of Democrats, compared to just 33 percent who oppose construction.

Dan Cassino, professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the executive director of the FDU Poll, said the support for natural gas remains “tricky” for Democrats because it puts them at odds with their party’s traditional opposition to fossil fuels.

“That leads to a lot of people not sure how they’re supposed to be feeling about natural gas plants,” Cassino said. “Some combination of partisan cues and concerns about rising prices are working to increase support for natural gas even among people who would otherwise reject them.”

Shifting attitudes toward natural gas and bright outlooks aside, pipelines still face steep battles in blue states. At the same time as New York approved the Northeast Supply Enhancement, the Constitution Pipeline — also slated to terminate in New York — will not move ahead.

Another Williams project, the Constitution Pipeline, would have transported natural gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale region to Schoharie County, N.Y. Williams says that the pipeline would have delivered enough capacity to meet the daily needs of 3 million households.

Wiggins, while not speaking directly to the Constitution Pipeline, told InsideSources that permitting reform remains at the top of the industry’s agenda.

“It’s hard to talk about how to meet demand without having permitting reform,” she said. “We need some concrete solutions. The Clean Water Act has been weaponized by some states to thwart natural gas pipelines.”

Jessica Towhey writes about energy and education policy for InsideSources.com.