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General Assembly leaders hint at subpoena over pipeline fund

"The public deserves answers, and their elected representatives will exercise every tool at our disposal to get to the bottom of this," GOP leaders say.

Posted Updated
N.C. Atlantic Coast Pipeline
By
Travis Fain
, WRAL statehouse reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — Republican legislative leaders blasted Gov. Roy Cooper's administration Tuesday for failing to answer key questions about a $57.8 million fund linked to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and they implied subpoenas are next if answers don't come soon.

"The public deserves answers, and their elected representatives will exercise every tool at our disposal to get to the bottom of this," the chairmen of the House Rules Committees and the Senate Rules Committee said in a joint press release titled, "What is Gov. Roy Cooper hiding?"

Just below that quote? This line: "The General Assembly has statutory authority to compel testimony and obtain public and private records when necessary and when they are not voluntarily given."

State code empowers General Assembly committees to compel testimony when authorized by leadership and a majority committee vote. Legislators actually subpoenaed incoming members of Cooper's cabinet early last year during a dispute over whether new cabinet confirmation powers the legislature had voted for were actually constitutional.

But this would be weightier testimony, potentially delivered under oath if legislators go through with their implied threat. Republicans have dubbed the fund, agreed to between Cooper's administration and the energy consortium behind the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a Cooper "slush fund." As announced, it was supposed to deposit nearly $58 million in an account of Cooper's choosing and be doled out via grants for environmental damage mitigation, economic development and renewable energy projects along the pipeline's route in North Carolina.

The details of that process would have been laid out in a future executive order, the memorandum of understanding establishing the fund states. That memorandum was announced the same day Cooper's Department of Environmental Quality said it had approved a key permit for the pipeline, which is a project of Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Company Gas.

Republicans acted first, passing legislation to pull these future funds into the state treasury and give them to schools along the pipeline route instead.

They tied this measure to a delay for class size requirements sought by local school divisions, more money for K-12 public schools and enough future funding to wipe out the waiting list for taxpayer-funded pre-kindergarten programs. Cooper has said he'll let that bill become law without his signature.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline would bring natural gas from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. It would run through eight North Carolina counties, roughly parallel to Interstate 95, and Cooper has said he hoped the mitigation fund would help new businesses afford costly tie-ins to the pipeline, creating jobs in eastern North Carolina.

Republican legislators ambushed Cooper's newly hired legislative liaison, Lee Lilley, who previously lobbied for the pipeline, with questions about how the fund was negotiated during a recent committee hearing. Afterward, they took Lilley up on an offer to respond to written questions, sending 15. The Governor's Office responded but didn't answer many of the questions, including questions WRAL News and other media outlets have asked without getting full answers.

On Monday, Cooper Chief of Staff Kristi Jones responded to a second letter from GOP leaders, calling their questions "political in nature" and moot now that the General Assembly has voted to take control of the fund. She accused them of putting on a "partisan charade."

"It is shameful, but unsurprising, that you have turned a fund that provided such promise for North Carolina into political theater," Jones wrote.

Republicans re-upped their questions and their criticisms Tuesday, saying that "what many are referring to as the governor’s personal ‘slush fund’ doesn't pass the smell test."

"Gov. Cooper’s refusal to answer simple questions surrounding the $57.8 million he obtained from the energy companies building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline just before granting them a key permit to advance it is deeply disturbing and frankly unacceptable," House Rules Chairman David Lewis and Senate Rules Chairman Bill Rabon said in their joint statement. "And his staffer’s disrespect and dismissal of North Carolinians’ legitimate ethical concerns over the appearance of pay-to-play as ‘political theater’ is beyond the pale."

They also said Cooper's administration is "shaping up to be one of the least transparent and most secretive that we can remember." Republican leadership at the General Assembly has its own issues with transparency, as bills often emerge fully formed, with little notice before they pass. That includes the recent pipeline fund legislation, which was written behind closed doors and rolled out at committee to the surprise of many.

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