Long Islanders were recently hit with bad news. National Grid, which provides natural gas for nearly 600,000 Long Island residents, announced it won’t be able to provide fuel for new customers if the proposed Williams Co. Transco pipeline expansion isn’t approved by May 15.

Earlier this year, energy company Con Ed imposed a similar moratorium on new natural gas service in parts of Westchester County due to limited capacity on existing pipelines. These crises are completely avoidable.

This isn’t the first time political hurdles and bureaucracy have stalled pipeline construction in New York. The Constitution Pipeline, which was to carry natural gas 124 miles from Pennsylvania’s booming shale fields to consumers in New York, has been stalled for six years despite being approved by federal regulators in 2014. New York officials have used their authority under the Clean Water Act to prevent the much-needed infrastructure project from moving forward.

For too long, politicians like Gov. Andrew Cuomo and their ill-considered energy policies have hampered the development of safe, efficient energy infrastructure, subjecting American consumers to unnecessarily high energy costs and unreliable service. According to the Global Energy Institute, since 2010, New York’s statewide ban on fracking and opposition to new pipeline construction have led to a loss of more than $22 billion in GDP, nearly 200,000 full-time-equivalent job years and almost $5 billion in tax revenue.

These developments may help to explain why President Trump signed two executive orders last month seeking to streamline the permitting of new energy infrastructure projects. A strong domestic energy industry is key to meeting the energy needs of New Yorkers and Americans across the country. Decreasing our reliance on foreign energy sources also bolsters US national security.

Whether environmental activists like it or not, natural gas is an essential fuel in our everyday lives. Natural gas is responsible for generating more than 30 percent of the country’s electricity. It is used to heat buildings and water, cook and dry clothes.

New York state is the fifth-largest natural gas consumer for electric power generation. More than one-third of its electric-generating capacity relies on natural gas or fuel oil. More than 60 percent of electric-generating capacity installed in 2018 was fueled by natural gas.

The safest, most efficient and most environmentally conscious method of transporting natural gas is by pipeline. Despite this, environmental activists continue to move the goal posts.

Not long ago, activists backed natural gas, a clean-burning fuel largely responsible for reducing US carbon emissions even as global emissions climb. Now, some fringe activists protest that Cuomo — one of the staunchest opponents of energy infrastructure around — isn’t sufficiently anti-infrastructure. Where does it end?

While developing alternative fuel sources is a part of progress, activists and politicians must honestly and realistically approach energy policy discussions. Electricity generated by renewables makes up only 17 percent of our country’s electric supply; the other 83 percent comes mostly from natural gas, coal and nuclear.

Even Ernest Moniz, US secretary of energy under President Barack Obama, has argued that natural gas will have a “fairly long run” in the drive to decarbonize the US economy, “because as more and more variable resources are brought into the electricity system, the more you are going to need natural gas for the balancing of that system.” The energy simply does not exist to supplant what activists are attempting to eliminate.

New York must catch up with the rest of the nation. States like Ohio and Pennsylvania have embraced the natural gas boom — and are seeing great economic benefits. Since 2012, natural gas impact fees in Pennsylvania have generated $1.5 billion in state revenue, including almost $500 million designated for environmental conservation.

It’s time to end Cuomo’s crusade against energy infrastructure. New York needs a pipeline network to meet the growing needs of its residents.

Craig Stevens, a native of western New York and former senior adviser to US Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, is the spokesman for Grow America’s Infrastructure Now.