Environmental activists have filed a federal lawsuit that aims to stop the fossil fuel pipeline that was recently approved by Governor Kathy Hochul's administration and would run from New Jersey through New York Harbor.
The permit to build the 37-mile pipeline that would supply National Grid with fracked natural gas was denied three times by state regulators between 2018 and 2020, in large part because they concluded that the pipeline's construction would dredge up centuries of consolidated toxins resting on the seabed and leech the deadly chemicals into the harbor, impeding the decades-long effort to clean up the harbor.
But two weeks ago, Governor Hochul's Department of Environmental Conservation approved the permit for the pipeline's builders, the Williams Company, to proceed with the project—reportedly after a deal was cut by Governor Hochul and President Donald Trump to get Trump to restore approval to a wind farm off the coast of Long Island.