Gov. Kelly Ayotte said Monday she wants to bring back a much-debated natural gas pipeline project to increase supplies to New Hampshire.Ayotte expressed her support for the Constitution Pipeline as Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was in New Hampshire.Zeldin met with Ayotte and top state officials as he toured Eversource headquarters in the Manchester Millyard.As he promotes what the administration is calling “cooperative federalism” with the states, he is also talking about a top priority of President Donald Trump: increasing energy supply to the Northeast.>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go: Apple | Google Play
Gov. Kelly Ayotte said Monday she wants to bring back a much-debated natural gas pipeline project to increase supplies to New Hampshire.
Ayotte expressed her support for the Constitution Pipeline as Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was in New Hampshire.
Zeldin met with Ayotte and top state officials as he toured Eversource headquarters in the Manchester Millyard.
As he promotes what the administration is calling “cooperative federalism” with the states, he is also talking about a top priority of President Donald Trump: increasing energy supply to the Northeast.
>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go: Apple | Google Play
Zeldin said the EPA can play a crucial role in adding more natural gas capacity in New England. Zeldin’s home state of New York has been an obstacle to the plan, but he said there are actions the EPA can take.
“Permitting, permitting, permitting,” he said. “There are so many ways EPA is capable of slowing things down, but EPA also has a lot of different ways to help speed things up.”
Ayotte announced her support for a revival of the Constitution Pipeline project at her meeting with Zeldin. The pipeline would link natural gas supplies in Pennsylvania to Northeast markets. It was first proposed in 2012 but canceled in 2020.
“I hope that New York and other states will take a look at it again, because all of us are facing energy prices that are too high, so we want to have more supply so that we can reduce people’s costs,” Ayotte said.
While consumer costs have risen over the past decade, the pipeline is still likely to face renewed opposition.
Ayotte opposed Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct project years ago, but she said this project is different.
“This is very different because this would come into our existing pipeline, as opposed to building a whole new pipeline,” she said. “Obviously, we’re going to be very mindful of our environment and protecting our natural resources, and we’ll do that. But we also do need more natural gas here in New Hampshire.”