The Southeast Supply Enhancement Project would run 26 miles through Virginia’s Pittsylvania County alongside the existing Transco Pipeline – expanding the amount of natural gas that can be delivered from West Virginia to the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama. At the non-profit Appalachian Voices, Jessica Sims says the project must get approval from federal and state agencies.
“So in addition to the FERC certificate of public necessity, they will need other federal approvals for the Clean Water Act permit. In Virginia they’ll need a Clean Water Act permit, and in North Carolina they’ll also need that.”
Energy companies keep proposing pipelines in part because federal law guarantees builders a 14% rate of return – a number put in place in 1997 when interest rates were much higher. Opponents say it’s time to eliminate that incentive. Again, Appalachian Voices’ Jessica Sims.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing at this time bills like Senator Manchin’s Energy Permitting Reform Act, which would restrict community voices and make permitting for fossil fuel projects easier. We are concerned and opposed to fossil fuel infrastructure coming online that harms communities and adds to the growing climate crisis.”
The Southern Environmental Law Center says this new pipeline will commit the South to methane for the next 30, 40 or 50 years and notes it’s a powerful greenhouse gas -- 80 times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.
After this story was broadcast, the firm proposing the pipeline, The Williams Company, contacted us and requested inclusion of this statement: Williams’ proposed Southeast Supply Enhancement is an expansion of the existing Transco pipeline’s capacity in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. The project will include pipeline looping adjacent to the existing Transco corridor and modifications to 8 facilities and is designed to provide much-needed access to clean and reliable natural gas to the region for consumers. The project will add approximately 1.6 million dekatherms per day of pipeline capacity to the Transco system by the fourth quarter of 2027.
