New head looks to keep Gateway on track

Good morning and welcome to the weekly Monday edition of the New York & New Jersey Energy newsletter. We'll take a look at the week ahead and look back on what you may have missed last week.
Quick Fix
NEW GATEWAY HEAD LOOKS TO STAY ON TRACK — Thomas Prendergast, the new head of the Gateway Development Commission, is looking to keep one of the nation's largest public works projects on track.
Gateway — the bi-state agency building $16 billion train tunnels between New York and New Jersey — is getting its expenses reimbursed by the federal government and there aren't signs it's in the crosshairs of the Trump administration's cost-cutting moves.
Prendergast is a systems engineer by training and takes over a project that is advancing in separate pieces, with parts of the project advancing on both sides of the Hudson River, all leading to a pair of train tunnels that will boost the connection between the two states and, in turn, the Northeast.
A former head of the New York MTA, Prendergast views transportation as something that traditionally has bipartisan support.
'Transportation, by nature, has been bipartisan my entire career, and whenever I went down to Washington, no matter where I was, we saw that bipartisan support, so I'm confident that it will still be there,' he said. 'It's important for the economy. It's important for the people that live in those regions to be able to not only get to work, but to do what they want to do in terms of living.'
Of course, there are exceptions even for the very project he's working on: Republican Gov. Chris Christie killed a previous version of the project and President Donald Trump turned the tunnels into a bit of a grudge match.
Prendergast said he's monitoring what is happening in Washington.
'Am I aware of the fact that there's a new administration in place and we need to make sure that the justifications that we have used in the past to be able to support the project are on par with what the current administration is?' he said. 'So to be aware of what the current administration is and its feelings about the project, it goes without saying I have to be aware of that.'
The project is meant to provide a second set of tunnels connecting Manhattan to the mainland. An existing set of tunnels is over a century old and showing their age. When the new tunnels are built and the old ones rehabbed, there will be four tracks in and out of Manhattan, allowing more people to come and go more easily. — Ry Rivard
CONGESTION PRICING FIGHT: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul defended her state's congestion pricing program in New York City on Sunday, reaffirming her commitment to legally challenge President Donald Trump's recent move to strike the program's federal approval, POLITICO's Amanda Friedman reports.
Trump met with Hochul for more than an hour on Friday to discuss the Manhattan toll program, POLITICO's Nick Reisman reports. The Democratic governor also spoke with the president about immigration and energy policies during the Oval Office meeting, a spokesperson for the governor confirmed Saturday.
Meanwhile, the program remains alive. Though Trump said congestion pricing is dead, his administration says the toll in Manhattan is still alive for another month. To allow for an 'orderly cessation,' the Federal Highway Administration said late last week that the tolling program must stop collecting tolls by March 21, according to a letter obtained Friday by POLITICO's Ry Rivard.
HAPPY MONDAY MORNING: Let us know if you have tips, story ideas or life advice. We're always here at mfrench@politico.com and rrivard@politico.com. And if you like this letter, please tell a friend and/or loved one to sign up.
What we're watching:
TUESDAY— New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy gives his annual budget address, 3 p.m.
— The New York Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee has NYISO's Kevin Lanahan appear and take questions from lawmakers, 11:30 a.m., Room 124, Capitol Building, Albany.
— The Department of Public Service holds more hearings on regulations to implement the 'RAPID Act,' 1 and 5 p.m. at Stony Brook University and Broome County Public Library.
— The International Longshoremen's Association is expected to vote on the contract proposal that ended a strike last fall.
WEDNESDAY— The Department of Public Service holds more hearings on regulations to implement the 'RAPID Act,' 1 and 6 p.m. Nassau County Legislature.
THURSDAY— The Department of Public Service holds more hearings on regulations to implement the 'RAPID Act,' 1 and 6 p.m., NYS Department of Public Service, New York City, and Town of Poughkeepsie Town Hall.
FRIDAY— The state's Fire Prevention and Building Code Council meets to discuss changes to the rules for new construction to comply with the state's ban on fossil fuel combustion for some new buildings starting next year, 10 a.m., various locations and online.
Around New Jersey
— A Camden metal recycler blames battery for a blaze that spurred scores of evacuations.
— A bill to protect workers from heat is moving.
What you may have missed
FOES BEYOND TOLLS — POLITICO's Ry Rivard and Erica Orden: New York's fight to save a Manhattan toll plan sets up a court battle between the Trump administration and one of the president's major legal foes, Roberta Kaplan.
Perhaps no attorney bedeviled President Donald Trump in his many legal cases more than Kaplan, who was previously best known for winning the Supreme Court case forcing the federal government to recognize same-sex marriage.
Kaplan represents E. Jean Carroll, who won multimillion-dollar civil judgments from a pair of juries after they found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. He continues to assert his innocence and contest the awards.
Kaplan is also counsel for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority in its bid to save congestion pricing from Trump's attempt to kill it. The MTA hired Kaplan long before Trump was reelected and she helped the transit agency beat back a series of legal challenges to the tolls even before they took effect in January.
NJLCV BACKS SHERRILL — POLITICO's Daniel Han: Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat running for governor, said Wednesday that she supports Gov. Phil Murphy's clean energy goal for the state by 2035 — suggesting a continuation of one of Murphy's marquee environmental initiatives.
EPA UNFREEZES SOME CLIMATE MONEY — POLITICO's E&E's Jean Chemnick: EPA has unfrozen nearly all of its climate grants. As of early Thursday afternoon, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was the only exception. Awardees of other EPA grant programs under the 2022 climate law found Tuesday and Wednesday that they could access the federal government's portal to receive funds, several told POLITICO'S E&E News. The same was true for recipients of an infrastructure law grant program that helps school districts buy clean school buses. Grantees were granted anonymity to speak out of fear of reprisals. All those programs had been frozen — with one brief interruption — since Jan. 28. EPA said the pause would allow for a 'review' of the programs.
CORPS PULLS BACK PERMITTING LIST — POLITICO's Annie Snider: The Army Corps of Engineers is revising a list of more than 600 energy projects that could get fast-tracked permitting under President Donald Trump's declaration of an energy emergency. The Corps, which issues Clean Water Act permits for projects that impact wetlands, posted a list of projects to its permitting dashboard last week tagged with the president's executive order as the emergency 'event' that would qualify them for expedited permitting.
OFFSHORE WIND HOPES PERSIST: New York isn't giving up on offshore wind as a potential industrial revival for the Hudson River. The state awarded a small amount to the Orange County Industrial Development Authority to advance the potential for the aging Roseton power plant site to be marketed to companies — with a focus on 'targeting offshore wind supply chain companies.'
The $500,000 award is from Gov. Kathy Hochul's FAST NY fund, which pays for utility upgrades and other improvements to make sites more 'shovel ready' as local officials seek to attract companies. 'The site provides unique assets, including direct access to existing power transmission, rail, heavy infrastructure, and existing maritime infrastructure with direct access to the Hudson River,' Hochul's announcement states.
NYSERDA previously awarded another Orange County group funding to study the potential to reuse the site of the existing Roseton and Danskammer fossil fuel plants in the Newburgh area.
The latest Empire State Development funding will focus on 'unused acreage' at the Roseton facility, ESD spokesperson Matt Gorton told POLITICO. 'There's some thought that, given the location, there may be some synergistic uses for the location's unused portion,' he said. The money will help fund an environmental review, plus engineering and site design.
The Port of Albany, meanwhile, is reconsidering its offshore wind focus for the Beacon Island site that was supposed to host a massive tower manufacturing facility for the industry. Hochul awarded nearly $19 million to the port to continue investing in the unused, 85-acre site where trees and vegetation were cleared to make way for foundations.
Hochul's administration is still sitting on her much-heralded $500 million for the offshore wind supply chain that was appropriated in 2022. Some of that could have gone to a GE blade manufacturing facility in the Albany area — if that deal hadn't collapsed along with three potential offshore wind projects. With NYSERDA delaying its latest round of awards, the state's offshore wind hopes are in dire straits. Federal funds and approvals for wind-related projects are also in peril. — Marie J. French

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