“The Atlantic Coast Pipeline will make the abundant supplies of natural gas now being produced in the Appalachian shale basins, including the Marcellus and Utica formations, much more available to North Carolina,” the resolution said. “Better availability of natural gas will promote more stability in home heating and electricity costs and help avoid the pipeline constraints that helped lead to very high prices for fuel during the winter of 2014.”

(A meeting on the proposal is scheduled for September 23 at The Centre on the campus of Halifax Community College. Times will be from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for landowners and 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. for landowners and the general public.)

Council concurred that the pipeline “will have significant environmental benefits by supplying new power stations that operate on this clean fuel and allowing existing power facilities to convert to natural gas.”

The resolution says that better access to natural gas will help the state recruit new manufacturing operations that use the fuel as a power source or as part of product production.

“Construction of the pipeline and its ongoing operations will provide substantial economic benefits to our state, with a recent study estimating development and construction of the facility will generate more than $680 million in economic activity in North Carolina from 2014 through 2019 (and) this construction project will provide new employment opportunities to thousands of residents of our state.”