OPINION:
In early September, the Third Circuit vacated and remanded a lawfully issued Water Quality Certification that New Jersey’s environmental regulator issued for Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement Project (NESE) — a $1.8 billion pipeline expansion project that will address the energy reliability crisis in New York City and help overall reliability across the northeast, including in New Jersey, while providing jobs and tax revenue to New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The pipeline will significantly reduce CO2 emissions — the equivalent of removing thousands of cars from the road each year.
The Clean Water Act 401 certificate was sent back to NJ based on some procedural technicalities after two activist groups filed lawsuits challenging New Jersey’s issuance of the permit a permit — that came after seven years of state review, multiple rounds of modeling and technical submissions, a public comment period and a public hearing.
This follows similar eNGO challenges to other pipeline project permits, including the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project, the MVP Southgate project and the Regional Energy Access project. Environmental groups are even challenging FERC’s “consideration of certificate reissuance” for a Williams pipeline project that is still in the commercialization process.
These environmental activist lawsuits that result in court cancellations do not stop the use of reliable baseload power sources. They do not improve environmental outcomes. And they do not help the communities where these projects are proposed. They do, however, increase emissions and raise Americans’ energy prices.
We have the ideas, talent and capital to build big things in this country. But too often, our country’s long, expensive and duplicative permitting process stands in the way.
When projects sit in review and litigation for years, costs rise, investment stalls and communities miss opportunities for jobs and economic growth.
A faster, more predictable permitting process can help move critical energy infrastructure forward while maintaining important reviews.
Federal permits are moving more efficiently and with more transparency because of the Energy Dominance Council and the Federal Permitting Steering Council. But we cannot take for granted the country’s need for long-term regulatory certainty and strong, durable permitting reform passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.
This is not just about economic growth and meeting rising demand for energy. Absent real, comprehensive reform, America will lose jobs, energy independence and economic opportunity to China.
China dominates as the global manufacturing superpower because of its rapid ability to scale infrastructure. China now generates over double the electricity of the U.S. and is the world’s largest electricity producer, accounting for one-third of global generation. And since 2000, China has increased its generation tenfold while US generation remained flat.
AI, electrification and the onshoring of manufacturing are creating unprecedented growth in power demand. From 2010-2024, the U.S. saw 5% electricity demand growth, but from 2025-2034 the U.S. is expecting at least 52% growth. We need to build the power facilities and linear infrastructure necessary to meet this growth or we will surely fall behind.
And America’s energy security depends on our ability to supply our allies with American natural gas. With global LNG demand growth expected to increase from 57 bcf/d in 2025 to 90 Bcf/d in 2035, LNG facilities need strong permitting reforms to capture this growth.
An effective permitting reform package should eliminate duplicative environmental reviews, amend the Clean Water Act 401 process that is being used to delay and relitigate projects that federal and state regulators have already approved, and overhaul the judicial review of permits.
That means removing the need for standalone state-issued Section 401 certifications for Natural Gas Act pipeline and LNG projects. Without a standalone state Clean Water Act 401 certification, there would not be standalone Section 401 lawsuits from activists.
We also need to stop courts from vacating permits for reasons that do nothing but increase the cost of America’s energy bills. Good reform will make a procedural NESE-type challenge substantially harder by ensuring that those who bring lawsuits can show they have been harmed and by ensuring that mistakes which do not impact people or the environment can be fixed without adding cost or slowing down a project. We should not be vacating permits without evidence that people or the environment will be harmed, particularly when errors can be easily fixed by the issuing agency. Such reform will also expedite the review process, saving the American people hundreds of millions of dollars on their utility bills.
To be clear, the Third Circuit did not find that NESE would violate water quality standards or put people in harm’s way. The court nit-picked the record for drafting and documentation mistakes that will be fixed on remand, not substantive reasons that justify stalling a $1.8 billion project necessary for affordability and reliability across multiple states. If New Jersey isn’t able to act quickly enough on remand, the court’s decision could put millions of people at risk if the northeast experiences an extended period of cold weather, not to mention the increased cost they’ll see on their utility bills.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed three strong bills last December that address many of these permitting issues. The Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act (SPEED Act), the Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act (PERMIT Act), and the Improving Interagency Coordination for Pipeline Reviews Act all passed with bipartisan support.
In March, Sens. Dave McCormick, R-Penn., and Peter Welch, D-Vermont, introduced a bill to modernize America’s electric grid and cut red tape. And Sen. Alan Armstrong, R-Okla., introduced the American Energy and Mineral Infrastructure Act of 2026, which includes key parts of the House’s bipartisan permitting reform bills.
The work continues with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee leading a bipartisan Senate package that is expected to be a broad and comprehensive package of reforms to multiple environmental laws incorporating provisions from both the House and Senate bills that have been passed and introduced, respectively.
Pressure is building for Congress to pass permitting reform, with every industry from telecom to manufacturing championing the need for reform.
While we agree that Congress needs to pass permitting reform, we also feel strongly that permitting reform is only worth the President’s signature if it fixes the permitting problems and lawsuits that are standing in the way of our ability to build the pipelines and LNG facilities needed to lower Americans’ energy prices.
Durable, long-lasting permitting reform must include reforms to the Clean Water Act to prevent states and activist groups from weaponizing the permitting process, strengthening judicial review safeguards, streamlining NEPA reviews and LNG export approvals and removing the ability for courts to vacate or enjoin agency actions under NEPA.
At Williams, we want to build the safest, most environmentally protective projects to lower Americans energy costs and grow our domestic economy.
But we need help from Congress in the form of real, meaningful permitting reform.
• Liz Bowman is Vice President of Government Affairs and Outreach at Williams, a Fortune 500 infrastructure company with operations spanning the natural gas value chain, including gathering, processing, interstate transmission, storage, and wholesale marketing and trading of natural gas and NGLs.
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