After months of uncertainty, a $2 billion electric vehicle factory planned for Richland County has received a major environmental permit that it needs to complete construction and launch operations.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the permit to fill wetlands at the Scout electric vehicle project site. Project developers submitted plans to offset the wetlands loss by protecting some 5,000 acres and restoring streams in other areas of South Carolina.

Friday’s decision, announced in a letter from the Corps to the S.C. Department of Commerce, drew praise from the economic development agency, as well as Scout and development officials with Richland County’s government. It allows the stalled project to move ahead.

“With this permit now in hand, we are excited to continue moving forward with our plans to construct a state-of-the-art facility in South Carolina, where we will reimagine the iconic Scout brand and hire thousands of South Carolinians to craft the next generation of all-electric trucks and rugged SUVs,’’ Scout said in a statement Friday night. “We will continue to provide regular updates and information to our local community around Blythewood as our operations progress.”

The decision followed questions last summer about whether construction crews jumped the gun and damaged wetlands when conducting initial work on the property. The Scout site is located off Interstate 77 at Blythewood in northern Richland County.

Scout agreed to halt some project work in September after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it found evidence of wetlands damage before the permit was issued. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources said clearing and grading occurred before it had a chance to fully assess the site.

Friday’s decision will allow some work that had been halted because of the wetlands concerns to crank up again.

“We are gratified that the permit has been issued, and we anticipate that work at the site will resume shortly,’’ SC Commerce Secretary Harry Lightsey and Richland County Economic Development Director Jeff Ruble said in a statement.

Scout’s wetlands permit request with the Corps sought approval to fill or impact 74 acres of wetlands, 38 acres of ponds and seven miles of creeks on the project site.

To offset the losses, project boosters proposed to protect some 5,000 acres in central South Carolina, much of it between Bluff Road and the Congaree River on the other side of Richland County. That land, near Congaree National Park, would add to the corridor of protected property in that area.

Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler, whose group had initially expressed reservations about wetlands damage at the Blythewood project site, said he had not heard of the wetlands permit approval until informed by The State.

But he said Scout and project supporters had improved the package offered to offset the wetlands loss, which may have led to the Corps’ decision. Natural resources agencies had initial reservations about the package.

In addition to protecting land near Congaree National Park and an island in the Broad River, the offset package — known as mitigation — was sweetened to include restoring some 19 miles of streams in the Sumter National Forest northwest of Columbia, Stangler said.

The streams had been degraded over the years, but now work will be done to return them to a more natural state, he said. The restoration plan had initially been discussed as part of a nuclear power project years ago, but the project was never done.

“We thought they should do more on mitigation, and they did,’’ Stangler said, noting that project developers also agreed to reduce wetlands impacts on the Blythewood site. “We had questions about a more thorough look at the project. We were able to get a lot of those questions answered through a back and forth with the team, and through some meetings we had and documents we requested.’’

The mitigation package also includes requirements that a $3.5 million performance bond be posted, as well as $625,000 for an endowment account. Credits also are to be purchased from a wetlands mitigation bank. Details were not immediately available.

The Scout project has been touted as historic for the Columbia area. As many as 4,000 jobs could be created. Scout, which plans to put up more than 30 buildings on the project site, expects to begin producing vehicles by the end of 2026. Some 200,000 vehicles will be manufactured annually, according to plans.

Scout’s sports utility vehicle will look like a gasoline powered vehicle, but it will be electric. Scout once was a popular SUV, but was discontinued. Volkswagen has brought back the Scout name for its electric vehicle manufacturing venture.

Gov. Henry McMaster has been a major supporter of electric vehicle manufacturing in South Carolina and was enthusiastic about landing Scout early in 2023.