The Atlantic Coast Pipeline will take center stage again at the statehouse next month when Republican legislators plan a public questioning of key Cooper administration officials about the pipeline permitting process.
It's been a back-and-forth political fight to get here, with Gov. Roy Cooper and his leadership team accusing the Republican-controlled legislature of dragging out a sham investigation, complete with private investigators, to score political points.
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Republicans say they want to know what the administration promised Duke Energy and other pipeline partners before announcing, on the same day, the pipeline's key state permit and a $58 million fund the governor would have controlled.
Cooper Chief of Staff Kristi Jones sent the legislature an open records request Thursday, seeking communications between lawmakers and Eagle Intel, the investigative firm hired to dig into the administration.
She asked for the records by next Friday, which would be a surprisingly quick turnaround for a large cache of records from the Cooper administration itself. She also said lawmakers should set aside legislative privilege, which is a large, but not fully defined, carve out in the state's open records law allowing lawmakers to avoid releasing documents.
"A legislative inquisition should not be allowed to hide behind a self-serving exception to the state's public records laws that protects legislators and their activities from public scrutiny while requiring every other governmental body and public official in North Carolina to make their records and communications public," Jones wrote.
Among Jones' requests: All "transcripts, notes, recordings or other records" of interviews already done.
Pat Ryan, communications director for Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, responded in a statement: "A request from the subject of an investigation to learn everything the investigators know about the alleged misconduct before that subject answers any questions about it is alarmingly brazen."
Jones' request was first reported by the NC Insider, a subscription service connected to The News & Observer that covers state government.
The public hearing will likely look like a deposition, with legislators questioning administration officials before a subcommittee created to review the pipeline permit and mitigation fund. Investigators had sought private questioning sessions with key officials, something the Cooper administration rebuffed.
Republicans offered that option again late last week and said that, if the administration preferred, public hearings would likely be held the week of Nov. 4. A report from investigators, who are retired federal agents, would come some time after that, Ryan has said.
Legislative leaders authorized the investigation in December, and the Cooper administration has released tens of thousands of documents through public records requests. Through mid-August, the inquiry had cost the state about $60,000 for 545 hours of investigative work, as well as additional hours of administrative work, NC Insider reported, based on a records request.
The Governor's Office seized on the price tag, which presumably has gone up since August.
"Legislative Republicans have been caught lying to the courts, the public and even their own members, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they are now wasting taxpayer dollars on a fake investigation," Cooper spokesman Ford Porter said in an email.
The pipeline itself is in limbo, awaiting arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court before it can proceed. It would bring fracked natural gas some 600 miles from West Virginia to North Carolina if completed. The $58 million fund was contemplated as a way to help businesses tie into the gas, do environmental mitigation along the route and to help fund renewable energy projects.
A memorandum of understanding setting up the fund said Cooper would lay out details over how the money could get doled out in an executive order, but that order was pre-empted as the GOP majority moved quickly to reroute the money to schools along the pipeline route.
The money won't be paid, though, unless the pipeline gets final approval.
Correction: This post has been edited to indicate that legislators are expected to question administration officials during the hearing as opposed to private investigators. The investigators are expected to have input on the questions asked.