Rocky Mount Telegram
by Corey Davis

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — Local businesses and people looking for potential opportunities associated with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are urged to participate in an event designed to provide information about the hiring process and timeline of the proposed 600-mile interstate natural gas transmission pipeline.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline Construction Expo will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Brown Auditorium at Nash Community College’s Business and Industry Center.

Tammie McGee, corporate media relations for Duke Energy, said Spring Ridge Construction, lead construction contractor for Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and the four Spring Ridge partner companies will provide information on the hiring process and timeline related to the pipeline, while local businesses are invited to learn how to become a subcontractor, vendor or supplier and local skilled laborers, teamsters, operators and welders are invited to learn about employment opportunities associated with pipeline construction.

“A robust, skilled workforce is required to ensure that every practice and procedure used to construct the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is sound, safe and of the utmost quality,” McGee said. “We will be committed to the safety of our employees, contractors and the communities in which we work, so we’ll be looking for laborers and businesses that are willing to make safety a number one priority. Getting the job done right also means completing it an environmentally responsible manner and strictly adhering to the highest quality standards and all regulatory requirements.”

With having the lead contractor and major subcontractors in one place at the same time, McGee said this will be the easiest way for people to get the most information quickly and accurately as pipeline officials will have union contacts and subject matter experts on hand for one-on-one interactions. 

“It’s a one-stop-shop for information, networking and finding out how to reap the economic benefits that pipeline construction will bring to the Twin Counties,” McGee said.

Atlantic, a company formed by four major United States energy companies — Dominion, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Company Gas — has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for authorization to build and operate the $5 billion pipeline planned to run from West Virginia, southeast through Virginia and then south through eight Eastern North Carolina areas, including Nash County, officials said.
McGree said the next process involves a draft environmental impact study from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is expected to happen soon. Atlantic estimates a notice to proceed could come in late 2017, with construction beginning in the first quarter of 2018, she added.

Officials said the pipeline is expected to provide a significant economic boost to North Carolina in terms of thousands of new construction jobs, increased local spending and new tax payments paid directly to local governments. In 2022, North Carolina counties along the route are estimated to receive about $6.1 million in property taxes.

“Nash County can expect more than a half million dollars in property taxes annually by 2018, increasing yearly to almost a million annually by 2025,” McGee said. “Long term, the infrastructure enhances the county’s ability to attract industry, manufacturing and new businesses, which can lead to higher paying jobs, increased local spending and a better quality of life.”

The proposed pipeline has generated opposition from some Nash County residents, who recently held a protest along the nine-mile route of the pipeline in Nash County hoping to form a strategy to stop the pipeline from happening. In addition, officials from Asheville-based Clean Water for NC, an organization that promotes clean, safe water and environments, said the pipeline will require only 18 permanent jobs, and gas is known to escape from pipelines and compressor stations during routine operations.

“Homegrown opposition to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline has actually been small in North Carolin,” McGee said. “Clean Water NC rallied out-of-towners to amass a showing at the protest walks in Nash, Cumberland and Robeson counties last month and offered to foot hotel bills to attract these protestors from other regions. Pipelines represent the safest mode of transportation available for natural gas and safer than highway, rail, airborne and waterborne transport.”

Read the full story in the Rocky Mount Telegram