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US Energy Companies End Atlantic Coast Pipeline Project

VOA News

   Two U.S. energy companies announced Sunday they have canceled a planned
   natural gas pipeline project that faced opposition from landowners,
   activists and environmental advocates.

   Dominion Energy and Duke Energysaid in a statement, "A series of legal
   challenges to the project's federal and state permits has caused
   significant project cost increases and timing delays."

   The pipeline was meant to run from the state of West Virginia and carry
   natural gas to customers in neighboring Virginia and in North Carolina.

   The companies said it would both lower costs for consumers and allow
   the retirement of coal power plants.

   But opponents said the project would harm wildlife and the environment
   with construction leveling trees and some ridge tops, and with the
   pipeline going under the Appalachian Trail that is popular with hikers.

   Delays in obtaining necessary permits had already ballooned the cost
   from its original estimate of $4.5 billion to $8 billion. First
   announced in 2014, the project was also years behind schedule.

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