Dominion Energy has confirmed plans to commission its nearly US$8bn Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project between West Virginia and North Carolina (United States) in early 2022, provided the group is allowed to cut trees along the project's route between November 2020 and March 2021.
The 1.5 bcf/d (15.5 bcm/year) Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project is developed by a joint venture of Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (Dominion Resources, 48%), Duke Energy ACP (40%), Piedmont NACP Company (a subsidiary of Duke Energy, 7%) and Maple Enterprise Holdings (an affiliate of Southern Company, 5%). The gas transmission project would deliver fracked gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to North Carolina and Virginia.
The gas pipeline project entered construction in the spring of 2018, when Dominion estimated its costs at US$6-6.6bn and its completion date in late 2019. However, the construction was suspended in December 2018 due to a local opposition and legal challenges, and the project has been delayed. In February 2020, the US Supreme Court ruled that the US Forest Service did have the authority to grant a right-of-way to allow the Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project to cross the Appalachian Trail in West Virginia and it will issue a decision on the project by the end of June 2020.