Depro co-authors report on Atlantic Coast Pipeline route

Brooks Depro, assistant professor of economics, was a member of the research team behind a new RTI Press publication, "Environmental Justice Concerns and the Proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline Route in North Carolina."

A new report published by RTI Press focused on the proposed route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through North Carolina was co-authored by Brooks Depro, assistant professor of economics at Elon. 

Depro was a member of the four-person research team that produced the report, “Environmental Justice Concerns and the Proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline Route in North Carolina,” for RTI International, an independent nonprofit research institute based in Research Triangle Park. 

“The purpose of the study was to provide the public with the tools and methods for evaluating environmental concerns regarding the pipeline project within their own communities,” said Julia Hofmann, an economist at RTI International and a co-author of the report. 

The study found that neighborhoods within one mile of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline route tended to have higher percentages of African American and Native American populations relative to neighborhoods located further away from the proposed route. The pipeline is a proposed underground natural gas transmission system that would run about 600 miles between West Virginia and eastern North Carolina. 

Find RTI International’s press release about the report here and the full study here