This article by SACE Senior Decarbonization Manager Shelley Robbins was originally published by YES! Weekly on September 17, 2025.
SACE is pleased to report that on August 28, the Forsyth County Council did indeed pass a unanimous, bipartisan resolution questioning the health and safety impacts of the Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project and asking FERC and NC DEQ to deny applicable permits unless and until concrete steps are taken that ensure the protection of the community. You can read the resolution here. Thank you, Forsyth County Council, for adding your name to the growing list of communities with concerns about this expensive, disruptive, harmful, and unnecessary fossil gas pipeline project.
I grew up in Thomasville, but with my grandmothers, great-aunts, and uncles all in Winston-Salem, it always felt like my second home. Back in the 1980s, I attended the North Carolina Governor’s School at Salem, took summer courses at Wake Forest, and worked a summer job at Piedmont Airlines in its final days. I have fond memories of early dinners at the K&W on Knollwood with my grandmother — a place we loved until it was tragically destroyed by a methane gas explosion in 1988.
I now work for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and I have serious concerns about a large proposed interstate gas pipeline project called the Williams Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (SSEP) that could jeopardize the safety of citizens along its path, including those right here in Winston-Salem. Part of the SSEP expansion is 24 miles of new 42” pipeline to be added next to Transco’s three existing large diameter, high pressure pipelines here in the Triad.
These older lines were installed long before Winston-Salem’s population, now over 125,000, began to grow around them. Neighborhoods, businesses, churches, hospitals, and schools are now in close proximity. Currently, plans call for adding a fourth massive pipeline into this already crowded corridor, a move that could be incredibly disruptive but also potentially dangerous. Much of the route now falls within a “high consequence area,” meaning that if the pipeline were to explode, loss of life and property would be likely. Heightening the risk, Williams intends to thread the new pipeline beneath the three existing lines in several places, including a crossing beside the new VA Clinic in Kernersville and another just 1,000 feet from Wallburg Elementary School on Highway 109.
In North Carolina, where safety comes first, adding another pipeline so close to homes, schools, and hospitals is reckless, especially when we don’t even know the full blast impact of stacking it beneath three existing lines. It is possible to calculate a “blast zone” for a single pipeline when you know its diameter and pressure. For example, for a 42-inch pipeline at a standard 1,440 psi, the blast zone extends 1,115 feet from the center — though the Pipeline Safety Trust has raised concerns that this figure may be too low. Currently, there are no studies to determine how the blast zone might be impacted if an explosion were to occur beneath two, three, or even four pipelines, leaving critical safety questions unanswered.
Furthermore, most of the gas from this project may never be used in North Carolina, but Duke Energy’s ratepayers in the state will likely end up paying for most of the $1.5 billion project since Duke Energy has agreed to contract for two-thirds of it. As cleaner, more affordable energy sources come online, Duke Energy likely won’t need most of that pipeline capacity. Williams has designed the project so that excess supply can continue flowing south toward liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals in the Gulf Coast.
The project includes adding bi-directional flow capability to compressor stations all the way to Transco’s main pooling station on the Alabama-Mississippi line. This would allow SSEP, if approved, to move fracked gas from the Pennsylvania and West Virginia shale gas region down to the Gulf Coast, conveniently close to LNG export terminals.
Winston-Salem is where I formed some of my most cherished memories, and I want future generations to have the same chance — to grow up in safe neighborhoods, to gather with family in beloved local spots, and to build their own stories without the looming threat of another hazardous methane gas pipeline. Protecting this community means preserving not just our safety, but the places and moments that make it home.
So why are we being asked to assume the risks so Williams and others can profit from new capital projects and LNG exports while undermining the state’s clean energy goals? It’s not too late to stop this. The project has not received state or federal approvals. If this dangerous and unnecessary proposal concerns you, contact your elected officials and urge Forsyth County Commissioners to join Guilford County in passing a resolution against SSEP.
