Planning begins for natural gas pipeline

A project to construct a major natural gas pipeline running into North Carolina is entering its planning stages, but environmental advocates say it will slow the state’s movement toward renewable energy.

Virginia-based energy company Dominion is teaming up with three power companies, including Duke Energy, to build a 550-mile-long pipeline from West Virginia to Robeson County, N.C. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, which would cost between $4.5 and $5 billion, would transport natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Dominion plans to use the pipeline to increase the natural gas supply in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.

Frank Mack, a spokesman for Dominion, said the pipeline will bring a reliable source of energy to North Carolina and allow for less reliance on coal.

Mack said the pipeline would support about 4,400 jobs during construction and bring $12 million of economic activity to the state by 2019.

David Rogers, field director at Environment North Carolina, said that while natural gas is cleaner than coal, it also slows the movement toward renewable energy.

“We have the technology right now to get our energy from things like the wind and the sun that are drastically better for the environment and give us a fuel source that will never run out,” he said.

Richard Whisnant, a public law and policy professor in the UNC School of Government, said the pipeline leaves the transition to renewable energy in question.

“It will be interesting to see if this pipeline is built and others are built, how much that plays into the question of the utilities’ commitment to support renewables,” he said.

Mack said natural gas has half the carbon emissions of coal, and that bringing it to North Carolina and shutting down coal-fired plants will be beneficial for the environment.

Rogers said the process, which includes drilling, could negatively impact people and wildlife — if methane from natural gas is released into the air unburned, it is harmful.

Mack said Dominion employs safety measures, such as around-the-clock monitoring and, if the proposal is passed, emergency shutoff systems and natural gas detection devices at compressor stations.

Dominion is preparing to perform surveys on land along the route. The application to build will be sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission next summer after open houses are held at the beginning of the year.

If the application is accepted, construction will start in 2017.

Mack said 12 percent of people whose property Dominion wants to survey have declined.

Rogers said Environment North Carolina will help people living on the route learn their rights in terms of letting companies survey their property.

Whisnant said it could negatively affect the economy and environment at the micro level.

“I personally don’t like the division of this all up into ‘there’s economic issues on the one side, and there’s environment issues on the other,’” Whisnant said.

“They are all economic and environmental issues to me.”

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