The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, already more than a year behind schedule, missed another deadline Wednesday when North Carolina regulators said they would not issue an environmental permit by Dec. 15 as had been expected.
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality sent the pipeline’s developers a request for more information on Monday, saying the request indefinitely suspends the Dec. 15 deadline to issue an air-quality permit for a planned compressor station that will push the natural gas downstream through the underground pipeline. The date to issue a decision on the air-quality permit will now depend on the promptness of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s responses and the amount of time it takes state officials to review the materials.
The Department of Environmental Quality, part of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration, had previously submitted four rounds of questions seeking additional information from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s developers. The agency is headed by career environmentalist Michael Regan, a former Southeast Regional director of the Environmental Defense Fund and a former official in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The News and Observer – John Murawski – 12.06.2017
Posted by: Nelson Bailey
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