Secretary Wright Delivers Remarks at the NESE Groundbreaking - April 14, 2026

Honored to be standing here in front of you with Williams, with National Grid, with all the members of the trades who literally build our country and make all of our dreams possible, with the members of the press, fellow New Yorkers, law enforcement. It is an honor to be here today. Most of all, what I think about as I stand up here is that flag standing behind me, that banner yet waving today. The American dream is about freedom and opportunity. Freedom and opportunity. When we went to war in World War II, this was a key launchpad that was to bring back freedom and opportunity to our allies in Europe. After World War II, the world saw unprecedented, transformative economic growth and transformation of the human condition, from most everyone living in poverty to an incredible world we live in today. That was made possible by a lot of things, American might, American values, American commitment, but all of it was impossible without energy. Massive increases in production of energy in the United States and around the world enabled this transformation of human opportunity and human freedom. In the United States, we have continued that pathway forward, but I want to point out a couple of contrasts. Sixteen years ago, the economy of the United States was roughly the same as the European Union. They had more people, we had higher per capita income, we both represented 25% of global consumption. Today, the United States is 28% of global consumption and the European Union is 18%. Our economy is more than 50% bigger, 75% higher per capita income. The main difference is, what happened the last 16 years? Europe got energy wrong. They decided to tear down their existing energy supplies. They thought they'd do a grand energy transformation to save the world from burning up. They obviously never looked at the data or studied climate change. They've shrunk their economy, they ceased economic growth, they crushed freedom and opportunity of their population. Sadly, the Biden administration tried to get America to go down that road as well. The Biden administration prided itself on how many power plants it closed, how much energy production it shut down. At the end, they left an electricity sector that produced no more electricity when they got into office than they got out, but cost 30% more and Americans were upset. Here we had artificial intelligence, the desire to reshore manufacturing, put our tradespeople back building factories and buildings and infrastructure in our country again. You can't do that without energy. You can't do that without energy. What we stand here today is a battle that began almost a decade ago to build an expansion of the natural gas coming from Pennsylvania into New York so that New Yorkers and Long Islanders can have lower cost bills and more importantly, greater job opportunities. New businesses can expand or locate here in New York and grow freedom and opportunity for New Yorkers. But freedom is never free. I thank everyone, the corporate people, the law enforcement officers, the citizens and the many local politicians here in New York State and in New York City who fought to better energize the citizens of New York, of Long Island and the broader New York State. We're going to add to this. Nessie is an awesome, absolutely awesome step forward. Constitution pipeline is next, which will transform the opportunities for people in upstate New York, reset costs lower, grow job opportunities higher, and transform the opportunities all six states in New England. The energy subtraction, fear-mongering policies of the Biden administration are over. President Trump is about driving down costs for Americans and driving up job opportunities and wages for Americans. He's passionate to do that through energy dominance, which means energy addition, not subtraction. More is better than less. Lower cost is better than higher cost. More job opportunities better than less job opportunities. God bless America. God bless President Trump's agenda and willingness to pivot so we don't go down the road of high expense and less opportunities for our children than for ourselves. That's not the American dream. That's not the American way, but that's not the direction we're headed. Under President Trump's leadership, we're going to better energize our country and grow opportunities.