Energy Department Commits Up to $42 Million in Defense Production Act Funds to Revive Constitution Pipeline

The Department of Energy said Monday, Oct. 19, that it will use up to $42 million in Defense Production Act Title III funding to advance the Constitution Pipeline. The proposed 125-mile natural gas line would run from northeastern Pennsylvania into New York.

The project is designed to carry up to 650,000 dekatherms of gas per day. That is enough, according to figures cited with the announcement, to serve the daily needs of roughly 3 million homes in the Northeast.

What the money pays for

The DOE said the funds will cover pre-construction and permitting work: environmental reviews and assessments, engineering, site preparation and other costs tied to securing regulatory approvals. After permits are in hand, the money could also support "complementary natural gas infrastructure."

The legal hook is Presidential Determination No. 2026-12, which identifies natural gas pipelines, processing and storage as essential to national defense. The money comes from $1 billion appropriated in the Working Families Tax Cut for energy projects deemed critical to national security.

The developer is Constitution Pipeline Company, LLC, a Williams subsidiary. Up to $42 million is a ceiling, not a guaranteed payout.

A project that died twice

Williams first proposed the pipeline in 2012. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted a certificate in 2014.

In 2016, under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York's Department of Environmental Conservation denied the Clean Water Act Section 401 water-quality certification, citing stream crossings and wetlands. The Second Circuit upheld the denial in 2017. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2018.

Williams and its partners abandoned the project in February 2020 after years of delay. The cost estimate had grown from under $700 million toward $1 billion.

The Trump revival

Trump signaled interest in spring 2025. Before meeting Hochul, he told reporters: "I hope we don't have to use the extraordinary powers of the federal government to get it done. But if we have to, we will."

Last year the administration also said it would let an offshore wind project move forward after what it described as Hochul's comments about her willingness to advance critical pipeline capacity. Her office denied there was a deal on any gas pipeline.

In December, Constitution Pipeline Co. petitioned FERC to reissue the project's certificates. FERC staff prepared an environmental assessment and concluded in August that the project would not affect the human environment. The public comment window closed in mid-September, and other federal agencies are expected to complete their authorizations by late November.

The competing claims

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the pipeline will cut electricity and home heating costs, reduce blackout risk during peak demand and make the country more secure. "The answer to high prices is more supply to push prices down," Wright said, adding that the Northeast grid is "on the ragged edge of surviving at peak demand times, particularly in the winter." He pointed to submarine manufacturing in Groton, Connecticut, and military bases across New England.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who chairs the National Energy Dominance Council, said the investment would save Northeast families "billions of dollars." Neither the DOE nor Burgum has published the calculation behind that figure.

Hochul's office rejected the premise. Ken Lovett, her senior communications adviser on energy and environment, called the announcement "nothing more than a political ploy to divert attention from Trump's tariffs and his reckless war in Iran," which he said have raised home energy costs and gas prices rather than lowering them. Lovett said the governor is pursuing an "all-of-the-above energy strategy" and accused Trump of obsessing "over blocking renewable energy projects."

Outside groups make a different argument. Stop the Constitution Pipeline, a coalition of environmental groups, local advocates and property owners, says the region already has enough infrastructure. "In spite of all the hype, the Constitution Pipeline cannot lower prices to consumers in either New York City or New England because it cannot provide any additional gas to those markets," the coalition said on its website.

Williams disagrees and says the pipeline is needed.

What comes next

The federal side is moving on a clear clock, with agency authorizations due by late November. The harder question is New York. The state's water-quality denial is what stopped the project in 2016, and the DOE announcement is about federal funding and federal permitting. How the state responds, and whether federal money can overcome an obstacle that sits in Albany, will determine whether $42 million in taxpayer funds ends up paying for a pipeline or for another round of pre-construction work on one that stays unbuilt.