US lifts work stoppage on Atlantic Coast pipeline

Dominion Energy says it will mobilize crews to resume construction on the Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline now that regulators have rescinded an order halting work on the $5bn project.

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today lifted a stop work order it issued on 10 August that temporarily prohibited further work on the vast majority of the 1.4 Bcf/d (40mn m³/d) pipeline. That clears the way for construction to be complete by the end of next year.

The 604-mile pipeline is being built across mountainous terrain and will bring gas from West Virginia into Virginia and North Carolina. The project was among the first major gas pipelines to be approved under President Donald Trump's administration, which has urged regulators to expedite permitting of energy infrastructure.

But the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals four months ago scrapped an endangered species permit for the project. FERC issued its stop work order after the same appeals court on 6 August tossed a right-of-way permit that allowed construction near the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic road that is part of the National Park System.

The administration since then has been working to resolve issues raised by the court, such as concerns that it set "vague" limits on the number of endangered animals that could be harmed during construction. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, in a replacement permit released today, set fixed limits on the number of individual endangered species that could be harmed.

Another of the court's concerns was that regulators had failed to show how building a pipeline through the Blue Ridge Parkway was consistent with the conservation goals of the National Park System. The US National Park Service, in a new permit issued today, said the pipeline was "not inconsistent" with the use of the land as a parkway.

Environmentalists accused the Trump administration of rushing out permits that federal courts had recently struck down. Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney DJ Gerken said the agencies were rushing through "a rubber-stamp process that ignores legal requirements, not to mention the public interest."

Dominion said the reissued permits were "very important steps forward" for the project. It said the agencies reaffirmed that the pipeline would not threaten protected species and would be consistent with the public's use of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The project is "on track for completion by the end of next year," the company said.