Trump Slams Hochul On Pipeline ‘deal’

President Donald Trump accused New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday of reneging on a pipelines-for-wind deal reportedly reached last year so that work on an offshore wind project could resume.

“We’re getting held up by the governor of New York,” Trump said about the Constitution pipeline after Monday’s NBA finals game. “She made a deal with us to allow us to build it and she’s holding it up, and Connecticut is suffering and all of New England is suffering, and upstate New York is really suffering.”

The White House last year said Hochul, a Democrat running for reelection, “caved” to Trump on a pair of gas pipelines so that construction on the Empire Wind 1 project could restart, a charge that Hochul’s office has repeatedly denied. One of the pipelines broke ground earlier this year, but the second — the Williams Companies' Constitution pipeline project — is still working to get federal energy regulators to re-issue the project’s certificate.

The proposed Constitution pipeline would start in northeastern Pennsylvania and end in upstate New York.

The White House referred POLITICO back to Trump’s remarks. Hochul's team pushed back on the president's claim.

“This is completely false as the President looks for yet another way to feed his obsession with killing offshore wind,” said Hochul spokesperson Ken Lovett. “Under Governor Hochul, New York will continue to be a clean energy and climate leader, even in the face of unending roadblocks put up by Washington Republicans.”

The president’s comments underscore the growing pressure on Democratic leaders in the Northeast over rising energy costs. A lack of pipelines into New England have been cited — along with the war in Iran and growing energy demand — as a factor driving higher utility bills.

Hochul has enjoyed a surprisingly collaborative relationship with the president while publicly attacking him over key issues. She’s blamed Trump’s opposition to offshore wind as one driver behind her successful push this year to weaken New York’s climate law.

In May 2025, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said he was “encouraged by Governor Hochul’s comments about her willingness to move forward on critical pipeline capacity.”

But Trump renewed attacks Tuesday on Hochul over the pipelines.

“We made a deal with her, and she broke the deal,” Trump said. “We made a deal. We’re going to give her a couple of windmills sometimes, because she likes windmills, which is a big mistake.”

The Constitution pipeline is already headed to court over New York’s opposition to a federal review that seeks to do an end-run around the state’s permitting authority under the Clean Water Act. Green groups have also challenged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s process.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who lost to Hochul in the 2022 gubernatorial election, was in Binghamton on Monday to support construction of the Constitution pipeline and push for New York to lift its ban on fracking. Environmental groups organized a protest in the city, and Zeldin later joined Trump for the basketball game and his remarks to reporters.

“We remain committed to working with state and federal partners to build the Constitution Pipeline, which can help lower Northeasterners’ energy prices by billions of dollars and provide much-needed reliability," said Williams spokesperson Cherice Corley, who didn't answer a question about Constitution's customers.

The 125-mile pipeline would cross hundreds of streams and wetlands in the state, raising concerns for environmental advocates. The project would deliver a significant injection of natural gas into the pipeline system flowing eastward into New England.

A study backed by Williams found the pipeline could save gas customers in the Northeast more than $8 billion over 15 years. A timeline on Williams’ website indicates that the company expects the FERC to reissue a certificate for the pipeline project in the third quarter of 2026, and that the project could be in-service by the second quarter of 2028.

Hochul and her administration have repeatedly denied any explicit deal to approve a specific pipeline.

"This is an administration that has no credibility with the public, so consider the source when you're challenging something I'm telling you," Hochul told POLITICO in December when asked about the White House's earlier comments on a deal.

“What she told the President was that as part of her all-of-the-above approach to keep the lights on and costs down, she is open to gas projects if they meet required state laws and regulations,” Lovett said.

Hochul’s administration approved state permits for Williams Co.’s other major New York project to bring gas into the downstate region in November 2025. The state’s utility regulator determined the additional supply was needed to support reliability of the region’s gas system, which was thrown into a precarious situation during a winter storm in 2022.

At the same time, Williams Co. withdrew its application for state permits for the Constitution pipeline. The Department of Environmental Conservation had asked for additional information and said the project needed federal approval and to supply additional information.

Trump in December again moved to block work on offshore wind projects, including two in New York.

Timothy Cama contributed to this report.