A top Trump official on Tuesday cited Gov. Kathy Hochul’s "willingness to move forward on critical pipeline capacity" for natural gas in addressing the administration’s decision to temporarily lift a stop-work order for the Empire Wind project.

On Tuesday, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management pointed to an update on its Empire Wind website saying its order to halt all work on the $7 billion project has been lifted "during the ongoing review" of the project's potential environmental impacts.

The agency declined to comment further, but a White House spokeswoman responded to a Newsday inquiry about the order with a link to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's X account.

Burgum wrote he was "encouraged by Gov. Hochul’s comments about her willingness to move forward on critical pipeline capacity," adding, "Americans who live in New York and New England would see significant economic benefits and lower utility costs from increased access to reliable, affordable, clean American natural gas."

Burgum had been in Brooklyn earlier this month and met with National Grid, which had previously supported a pipeline into the metropolitan area to relieve a gas supply shortage. The project was nixed during former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration.

Another pipeline into eastern New York, called Constitution and rejected in 2020, also has been broached for resurrection by the Trump administration. The Department of Energy, in eyeing new data centers for the federal facilities, has raised the idea of reconstituting the Caithness II proposal in Yaphank, a 750-megawatt natural gas power plant which Newsday has reported would require a new gas line.

Hochul, in her statement following the Monday night announcement, said she "reaffirmed that New York will work with the [Trump] administration and private entities on new energy projects that meet the legal requirements under New York law." She did not mention natural gas pipelines stalled in New York, but said, "In order to ensure reliability and affordability for consumers, we will be working in earnest to deliver on these objectives."

Her spokesman, Avi Small, didn’t respond to an email Tuesday.

Environmentalists hailed the move to restart work on Empire Wind 14 miles off Long Island’s coast. Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said in a statement: "All New Yorkers who want to breathe clean air should celebrate this fresh start for the Empire Wind project. The project will help to make our electricity bills more affordable and keep New York's electric grid stronger."

But others bristled. "My opposition to wind turbine projects, including Equinor[’s], has not changed and I will continue to advocate against this ill-conceived project," Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said in a statement.

Environmental opponents of new natural gas pipelines also were quick to pounce. Food & Water Watch, an activist group, criticized Hochul's previous overtures toward pipeline projects and on Tuesday said the governor’s "backtracking further by giving life to a fracked gas project that was already buried once would show just how deeply she’s willing to side with corporate polluters over everyday New Yorkers."

Whether the Trump administration’s lifting of its order for Empire Wind will help lift other green energy projects in New York is uncertain. Many are under threat of pending cuts in Congress for generous tax credits that have fueled solar, wind and battery proposals. Meanwhile, New York is already months behind a published deadline to announce awardees for an offshore wind lease area beyond Empire’s.

Asked if Hochul’s agreement with Trump included any waivers for a pending wind solicitation by New York known as NY5, Deanna Cohen, a spokeswoman for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which administers the programs, wrote, "Please direct this question to the White House."

Germany-based RWE, one of the co-proposers for NY5 in a project known as Community Offshore Wind, in April cited anti-wind moves by the Trump administration in saying it would stop work, for now, on U.S. projects.

Will Brunelle, a spokesman for National Grid Ventures, RWE's partner in Community Offshore Wind, in an email said, "We have paused development on our Community Offshore Wind project as a result of market conditions and increased risk in the U.S. We will reassess the development pause should conditions improve."