Atlantic Coast Pipeline cancelation an economic bust for West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina

Energy companies have canceled the multibillion dollar Atlantic Coast Pipeline plan, which was designed to build a natural gas pipeline through parts of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. 

The proposed 600-mile pipeline, which would have traveled from Harrison County, West Virginia, through Virginia, and ended in Robeson County, North Carolina, was expected to create about 17,000 jobs and $2.7 billion in economic activity in the three states. 

The plan faced legal challenges from environmental groups that failed to stop the pipeline after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that would have halted parts of the project. 

Although Dominion Energy and Duke Energy finally won the legal fight, they came out of the battle heavily damaged with a project three years behind schedule and a budget expected to be $3 billion higher than initial projections. Fearing additional legal challenges and unsure about the future of the project, the companies ended their six-year-long venture.