As you read this article, there is a worldwide, trillion-dollar industry working every day to convince you that there is nothing you can do to save your planet. Fossil fuel executives
weaponize the idea that climate change is too daunting of a threat for humanity to tackle to keep you sedated and hopeless. In reality, there are battles against climate change being fought across the country, with ordinary citizens and their representatives working together to decide the fate of life on Earth.
One is taking place in New York State, where locals have been combating the proposed construction of a fossil fuel project on their state’s land by Williams Energy for years. If approved, this twenty-three mile fracked gas pipeline, known as the Northeast Supply Enhancement, would be the largest of its kind in New York State to be constructed in a decade. Besides the disastrous consequences of burning the fossil oil collected from the pipeline, its construction would decimate marine life in New York Bay and cause irreparable damage to its water quality.
The pipeline was previously rejected by Governor Hochul’s office when it was proposed for three consecutive years— 2018, 2019, and 2020—but now, with support from President Trump Williams has reintroduced it. Since the beginning of his second term, the president has opposed to clean energy, canceling nationwide wind projects, many of which were almost completely constructed and financed before being shut down. He has now turned his attention toward the North Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline and is holding a wind project off the coast of New York as a bargaining chip to coerce Governor Hochul into retracting her promises to transition away from fossil fuels. Trump has offered a simple deal: he will allow construction on the offshore wind turbines to resume as long as Hochul approves the creation of the pipeline.
Hochul, in response, has declared she will consider approving the plans but made no definitive statement. The idea that building a fracked gas pipeline alongside wind turbines would somehow be beneficial to reducing carbon emissions is laughable. Clean energy is only helpful to the environment as a substitute to burning fossil fuels; ; it’s not as though spinning wind turbines takes CO2 out of the atmosphere by itself. Currently, the public comment period on the pipeline has closed, but anyone can write an email to Governor Hochul urging her to not block the Williams Pipeline and resist Trump’s coercion.
Thousands of letters have been sent to Hochul’s office from constituents all across New York State. Americans have wised up to government environmental inaction and corruption. We must no longer allow our elected leaders to treat climate progress to further their own agendas.