The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has authorized the construction of the 15.5 bcm/year Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project in North Carolina, which will proceed later in 2018. The final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was obtained in July 2017.
The US$6bn project is developed by a joint venture of Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (Dominion Energy, 48%), Duke Energy (40%), Piedmont Company (a subsidiary of Duke Energy, 7%) and Maple Enterprise Holdings (an affiliate of Southern Company, 5%). The 965-km long pipeline will deliver fracked natural gas from the West Virginia producing assets down to North Carolina and Virginia. It will improve gas supply to eastern states, where the population growth and the replacement of ageing coal-fired power plants with a new fleet of gas-fired plants are expected to significantly increase gas demand over the next two decades.