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Secretary Wright Announces $42 Million in Defense Production Act Funding to Advance the Constitution Pipeline

October 19, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:04:07

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaking from a power station in Dover Plains, New York, told Fox Business that the Department of Energy is providing $42 million in Defense Production Act funding to move the Constitution Pipeline forward, according to the interview (transcript rendered from Arabic auto-captions). Wright said the funding would enable environmental and permitting work ahead of groundbreaking for the pipeline, which would carry natural gas from Pennsylvania’s fracking fields to New York and New England.

Wright said the funding is critical to national security, pointing to submarine manufacturing at Groton, Connecticut, military bases across New England, and a regional electric grid he described as on the edge of collapse at peak demand, as stated in the interview. He said the pipeline was first advanced about twelve years ago but was blocked, which he attributed to Democratic energy-reduction policies, and he argued that higher supply is the answer to high prices and blackout risk.

Asked about timing, Wright said he hoped construction would begin the following spring and that the pipeline could be in service in about two years, entering winter 2028, according to the interview. He said the current delay rests with New York’s governor, said all six New England governors now support the project, and cited the January winter storm — during which he said natural gas prices spiked to $200 per million BTU because of bottlenecks and oil burning became the largest generation source — as the kind of event the pipeline would prevent, as stated in his remarks.

Why it matters

The announcement ties a specific federal funding tool, the Defense Production Act, to reviving a long-blocked Northeast gas pipeline, making the Constitution Pipeline a test case for the administration’s permitting agenda.

Scoreboard watch

Secretary Wright said construction could start the following spring with the pipeline in service entering winter 2028 — a dated timeline that can be checked against the project’s permitting and construction milestones.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox Business - October 19, 2026”, 2026-10-19 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-10-19). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.