Dominion and Duke Energy got more bad news about their controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline project this month, with North Carolina regulators announcing they would not issue the necessary air quality permit for a planned compressor station in Northampton County by Dec. 15, as the utilities had hoped. The proposed 600-mile pipeline would carry fracked gas from West Virginia to North Carolina, with most of it used to generate electricity at gas-fired power plants.
On Dec. 4, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) — headed by the Environmental Defense Fund’s former Southeastern regional director Michael Regan — asked for additional information about air pollution impacts, indefinitely extending the deadline for a response. This marks the fifth time that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration has asked the ACP developers for more information about the project, which has the necessary approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission but still needs air, water and erosion permits in North Carolina. Last month the state requested additional details about economic benefits to communities along the pipeline’s route.
Amid ongoing questions from state regulators about the ACP’s impacts, its developers are running TV ads in North Carolina touting the project’s job-creation potential. They’re doing so through a group called the EnergySure Coalition, an alliance of pro-pipeline businesses and associations that’s funded by Dominion and Duke as well as the other two minor ACP investors, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Company Gas.
Facing South – Sue Sturgis -12.15.2017
Posted by: Nelson Bailey
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