Strained social service departments across the state are scrambling to implement new work rules that suddenly went into effect this month for New Yorkers who rely on food assistance.

The requirements — which were enacted as part of a sweeping federal bill passed in July, but went into effect months earlier than expected — could result in hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers losing their access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps.

The rushed rollout comes at a chaotic time for food assistance.

New York environmental regulators on Friday approved a major Trump-backed underwater gas pipeline in a U-turn for state energy policy.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation issued crucial water permits for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project, which it had rejected three times in the past.

At the same time, the DEC announced that the even larger Constitution pipeline, slated to cross New York into New England, would not move ahead. Both pipelines were priorities for President Donald Trump, who railed against Governor Kathy Hochul on social media earlier this week for moving too slowly on the projects.

Hochul said she stood by the DEC’s decisions.

“We need to govern in reality,” she said in a statement Friday. “We are facing war against clean energy from Washington Republicans, including our New York delegation, which is why we have adopted an all-of-the-above approach that includes a continued commitment to renewables and nuclear power to ensure grid reliability and affordability.”

The board advising New York on how to spend huge sums from opioid lawsuit settlements pressed Governor Kathy Hochul for greater transparency and faster action in its annual report released this week.

The state has received over $500 million from settlements reached with drug manufacturers for their role in the opioid crisis and is set to receive much more, including from a record $7.4 billion deal announced in January. The settlement funds consist of a complex mix of different pots of money, large portions of which the Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board oversees under state law.

But board members say the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports, which administers the funds, has been slow to respond to repeated requests for basic data, like how much of the money has made it to providers. Members have also been frustrated with the state’s routine rejection of their recommendations with little explanation.

“We don’t get any clear answers from the state,” said Ashley Livingston, a board member who has requested spending data since the body’s founding. “We’ve been asking for the same thing since June of 2022.”