Application filed for Atlantic Coast Pipeline

A formal application for a 564-mile natural gas pipeline into eastern North Carolina, backed in part by Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas, was filed Friday with federal regulators.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will decide whether the Atlantic Coast Pipeline benefits the public and is needed. FERC and other agencies will weigh the environmental and social impacts of the line.

The $5 billion project was announced a year ago. The new line will tap rich shale-gas reserves in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania and send fuel south.

The sole existing line into North Carolina runs from Texas to New York City, cutting across western North Carolina, including Charlotte.

The 30,000-page application includes environmental reports and exhibits on the hotly-debated route of the line. Dominion Energy, which will build and operate the pipeline, says hundreds of route adjustments have been made.

The project has prompted bitter protests in Virginia. A final route for the line has not yet been announced.

The pipeline will be 42 inches in diameter in West Virginia and Virginia, and 36 inches in North Carolina. The North Carolina portion will require a right-of-way 110 feet wide during construction and 50 feet wide permanently.

The governors of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina support the project. Backers say it could save consumers in Virginia and North Carolina $377 million a year by bringing in low-cost gas and create 2,200 permanent jobs.

Duke and Piedmont joined Dominion and AGL Resources to build the line, which would pipe natural gas from West Virginia through Virginia to Robeson County in eastern North Carolina.

If it’s approved, construction would start in late 2016 with completion by late 2018.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 10:05 AM with the headline "Application filed for Atlantic Coast Pipeline."