Opposition to the massive Atlantic Coast Pipeline is intensifying after an executive with Dominion Energy, the primary developer of the project, told an industry audience that the pipeline will likely be extended into South Carolina — a statement that came as a total surprise to people who have long questioned whether there’s a need for the pipeline in the first place. A conference attendee leaked the audio of the executive’s comments to a news organization.

Over the past two years, residents in Virginia and North Carolina have fought the proposed pipeline, expressing concerns about its climate impacts, its cost, and its effects on communities along its 550-mile route. They have also argued that the existing natural gas pipeline network in Virginia and North Carolina would be able to handle any increase in demand for the fuel.

Now opponents are learning that North Carolina may not be the end of the line for the pipeline. At last week’s South Carolina Clean Energy Summit in Columbia, South Carolina, Dan Weekly, Dominion Energy’s vice president and general manager of Southern pipeline operations, said “everybody knows” the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is not going to stop in North Carolina.

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Think Progress – Mark Hand – 09.29.2017

Posted by Nelson Bailey