U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, formerly governor of North Dakota. (Source: Shutterstock.com)
The Trump administration wants a pipeline to carry Pennsylvania shale gas into northeastern states—and it’s willing to take federal action to get a project completed.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, formerly governor of North Dakota, said the administration is looking at all options to connect northeast Pennsylvania production with demand centers in New England.
“If we just had another 124 miles of pipeline in New York, then we would have all of New England with lower electrical prices and they could be burning clean U.S. natural gas from ourselves,” Burgum said March 12 during the 2025 CERAWeek by S&P Global Conference.
The administration appears to be targeting the Constitution Pipeline, a 124-mile gas pipeline that would carry Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania to an end point near Albany, New York.
Burgum said the constraints to carry Marcellus gas into New England was part of President Trump’s declaration of a national energy emergency at the start of his second term.
“He wants the people of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts to have the same opportunity for low-cost, clean energy that the people in Pennsylvania do,” Burgum said.
“We will step in to make sure we can deliver that,” he said.
Williams Cos., the midstream company principally backing Constitution Pipeline, canceled the project in 2020 after running into intense water quality permit opposition from the New York state government.
And Williams is not necessarily keen to restart the project until it receives support from regional governors in the northeast, Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said this week.
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National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC)
In mid-February, the Trump administration announced the formation of the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) within the executive office of the president.
NEDC is chaired by Burgum and vice-chaired by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright—formerly CEO of Denver-based fracking specialist Liberty Energy.
The council was established to “identify strategic projects that need to have happened, with the authority of the president” under the national energy emergency declaration, Burgum said.
Instead of those projects taking eight to 10 years, NEDC aims to shave that timeline down to between two to four years, he said.
“We will come up with ways that we can cut red tape,” Burgum said. “We will identify where the overreach is.”
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