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Energy Secretary Chris Wright discusses the Energy Department’s efforts to unleash Northeast natural gas pipelines.
The Trump administration is putting up to $42 million in federal funding behind efforts to revive a long-stalled natural gas pipeline connecting Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale with energy markets in New York and the Northeast.
The Department of Energy announced Monday that the funding, provided under Title III of the Defense Production Act, will support permitting and pre-construction work on the proposed Constitution Pipeline as the administration seeks to expand energy infrastructure and lower regional energy costs.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright told FOX Business on Monday that the funding would help advance environmental and permitting work needed before construction can begin.
“The answer to high prices is more supply to push prices down,” Wright said. “The answer to get to the ragged edge of blackouts is more electric generation, more energy for home heating as well.”
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A “Natural Gas Liquid Condensate” label in a former hangar at Floyd Bennett Field during a ground-breaking ceremony for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Pipeline in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The proposed 125-mile pipeline would transport up to 650,000 dekatherms of natural gas per day from northeastern Pennsylvania into New York, connecting with existing interstate pipeline systems serving Northeast markets.
Williams Companies, a U.S. energy infrastructure company, is targeting the fourth quarter of 2028 for the pipeline to enter service, pending regulatory approvals.
Wright said the administration hopes construction can begin next spring, with the pipeline entering service in time for the winter of 2028.
“We hope construction begins next spring,” Wright told FOX Business. “We’ll want to see this pipeline in service two years from now, as we go into the winter of 2028.”
The funding comes as pipeline capacity constraints have contributed to energy supply challenges in the Northeast, particularly during periods of high winter demand.
Hazard is one of several Eastern Kentucky municipalities struggling to restore regular water service weeks after Winter Storm Fern. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images / Getty Images)
During Winter Storm Fern in January, petroleum briefly surpassed natural gas as New England’s leading source of electricity generation as power producers turned to oil amid tight gas supplies, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Separately, the EIA forecasts heating oil prices will average 34% higher this winter than last. Households that rely primarily on heating oil — most of which are in the Northeast — are expected to spend about 21% more despite forecasts for milder weather.
A map of the NESE Pipeline project is displayed. (Williams Companies/FOX Business / Fox News)
The Constitution Pipeline was first proposed in 2012 and received federal approval in 2014. But New York regulators denied a key water-quality certification in 2016, triggering years of legal and regulatory disputes before developers abandoned the project in 2020 amid concerns about its economic viability.
The project has since been revived, with Constitution Pipeline Co. asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in December 2025 to reissue its federal certificate. The pipeline still faces federal and state regulatory hurdles before construction can proceed.
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The funding follows an April presidential determination invoking the Defense Production Act to support domestic natural gas infrastructure amid permitting delays, financing constraints and pipeline bottlenecks.
