General

WILL ACTIVISTS BE ABLE TO STOP THE ATLANTIC COASTAL PIPELINE?

April 6, 2017


It is the other pipeline. The one hardly anybody is talking about. Not the Dakota Access pipeline, famous for months of resistance by Native American tribes at Standing Rock. Not the Keystone XL Pipeline, rejected by the Obama White House. Both these pipelines, now advanced through executive order by President Donald Trump, continue to generate headlines and controversy.

The Atlantic Coastal Pipeline (ACP) seems to be the pipeline that garners the least attention. And yet, to the thousands of people and businesses in its path, it has brought worry and turmoil.

The deadline for public comments on the pipeline is today, April 6. Whether it proceeds will largely depend on the final decision of federal regulators, expected this fall. Construction could begin by the end of the year.

The project, led by Dominion Energy Inc., is a joint venture with three other energy companies — Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Company Gas. The $5 billion 550-mile pipeline will bring natural gas — from Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania — to Virginia and North Carolina. To get there, It has to cross through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina