Environmentalists are celebrating today, after the National Forest Service rejected a proposed route for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to bring natural gas from West Virginia to North Carolina. Sandy Hausman has that story.
At the Southern Environmental Law Center, one of 44 environmental groups opposing the pipeline, attorney Greg Buppert said construction would have crossed sensitive areas that are home to rare salamanders.
“Dominion began its project with a straight line. It said, ‘We’re going to find the shortest route from where the gas is to where we want to take it,” and they ignored the fact that that straight line went through some of the best remaining wild land in the eastern United States," Buppert says.
Under the proposed plan, about 25 miles of pipeline would pass through the George Washington and Monongahela National Forests. Buppert could not say how much of a setback this was for Dominion – whether it could proceed with most of its plans while skirting those sensitive areas.
“I can’t really speculate on whether it’s a nail in the coffin for this project," Buppert says, "but it certainly is a significant delay for this project. At the very least, a significant portion of its route, particularly in West Virginia and western Virginia has a problem.”
Dominion expressed confidence that, in consultation with the Forest Service, it could find an acceptable route.