Dive Brief:
- Dominion Energy has put off construction of its $5.1 billion, 542-mile natural gas Atlantic Coast pipeline until summer 2017 but said the scheduled completion date of late 2018 is unchanged, the Charlotte Business Journal reported.
- Dominion officials said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission still has not issued the pipeline permit, which the energy company expected this spring, due to questions about the environmental impact of the current route.
- Dominion has not yet announced a primary contractor for the pipeline but said it is close to signing a contract with one.
Dive Insight:
Dominion spokesman Aaron Ruby told the Business Journal that the construction delay will not affect the "in-service date" of the pipeline and that the company would make up the time with resource and workforce planning. According to the Business Journal, FERC’s environmental concerns have their roots in complaints from community groups who object to the pipeline construction, especially those along its route through West Virginia.
Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline is part of the company's $10.1 billion Virginia investment program. The company said at the time that $957 million of its energy infrastructure investment in the state would be direct construction spending, and that $4.4 billion of its total investment figure would be generated from the economic activity resulting from construction. A study by Chmura Economics & Analytics found that between 2015 and 2020, Dominion’s construction program could support approximately 6,400 construction jobs and 11,900 total jobs per year in Virginia.