There’s enough smoke for an official probe into the NC governor’s pipeline deal
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper set out in late 2017 to create a “mitigation fund” intended to offset environmental damage resulting from construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that is planned to roughly follow I-95 through North Carolina. But what resulted is a misbegotten fund that’s causing ongoing political damage — for him.
The damage grew Wednesday with the release of a report by private investigators hired by the General Assembly’s Republican leaders. The report, based on research and interviews conducted by the firm Eagle Intel Services LLC, did not find the proverbial smoking gun, but it did find smoke — enough of it that an official investigation is needed to assess the legality of how the fund was established.
The need to investigate further was the report’s main conclusion: “[T]he information suggests that criminal violations may have occurred. An investigative agency with the authority to compel cooperation and the production of documents could potentially obtain additional information to identify violations of criminal statutes.”
The “may” in the conclusion is a big word. There are indications that the governor’s staff pressed Duke Energy and other pipeline developers to put $57.8 million into a mitigation fund that the governor could use to his political benefit. There are also indications that the governor’s top policy adviser, Ken Eudy, may not have been forthright when he told a legislative committee that he did not ask Duke Energy to say that its agreement to pay into the fund was voluntary. (A request that Duke Energy apparently declined.) The agreement came while a key water quality certification permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was awaiting approval by the state Department of Environmental Quality.
The report also describes how Cooper may have held up the permit to pressure Duke Energy to settle the so-called Nameplate Dispute — a complaint from solar power generators that Duke Energy wasn’t providing the level of access to its power lines required by state law.
Republicans have cast the matter as a classic pay-to-play deal: To get the water permit for the natural gas pipeline, Duke Energy would have to placate solar power companies and pay into a “slush fund” that Cooper could use to dole out cash in the form of grants for environmental mitigation, economic development and more renewable energy
Cooper’s office says that scenario is a fabrication without factual support. The governor’s spokesperson Ford Porter released a statement saying: “The report is wrong, and it is full of inaccuracies and contradictions that clearly ignore inconvenient facts. The report even concedes that the permit was done properly, that Duke believed the permits weren’t dependent on the fund or the solar settlement, and that the Governor did not benefit.”
Who’s right? Clearly the matter can’t be left as dueling versions of what happened. In part, the situation reflects at least two missteps by Cooper and his administration. The first was the vague wording of how the mitigation fund would function. That left its purpose open to the Republicans’ darkest interpretation. Second, Cooper’s decision not to cooperate with the Republicans’ private investigators fed the impression that the fund deal could not bear scrutiny.
North Carolinians have a need and right to hear a conclusion from government investigators who, unlike the GOP’s private sleuths, can use subpoena power to compel testimony and access records.