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NC GOP calls for Cooper investigation over pipeline

The state Republican Party called Tuesday on the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate Gov. Roy Cooper over his administration's handling of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and a $57.8 million mitigation fund attached to it.

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By
Travis Fain
, WRAL statehouse reporter, & Laura Leslie, WRAL Capitol Bureau chief
RALEIGH, N.C. — The state Republican Party called Tuesday on the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate Gov. Roy Cooper over his administration's handling of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and a $57.8 million mitigation fund attached to it.
GOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse said the group doesn't have evidence to point to beyond what's publicly known about the pipeline project, but officials feel a federal inquiry is warranted. Cooper, his aides and the state Department of Environmental Quality have repeatedly denied a tie between the fund and a key state permit for the pipeline, which were announced on the same day.

Party officials sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Robert Higdon asking the office to review "potential Hobbs Act violations by Governor Cooper."

The Hobbs Act is federal law prohibiting interference with interstate commerce. When applied to public officials, it includes extortion and bribery, such as accepting outside payment knowing that it was made in exchange for an official act.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office confirmed receipt of the letter but declined further comment, citing Department of Justice policy not to confirm nor deny the existence of investigations.

The state party's letter was addressed not only to Higdon but to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It runs six pages, laying out details of the pipeline fund as reported by North Carolina media, including that Cooper's family owns land near the pipeline's planned route.

There's no indication the pipeline fund is connected to that land, but Woodhouse said Cooper doesn't have to personally profit from the pipeline deal to warrant an inquiry, saying that the benefit could be political. The fund could be used to placate environmental groups, for example, upset with the governor because his administration approved the gas pipeline, he said.

"Calling for a federal investigation of a sitting North Carolina governor is a serious matter and not taken lightly," Woodhouse said during a press conference with state party Chairman Robin Hayes. "However, the conduct of Gov. Cooper regarding the $58 million pipeline fund designed to be under his sole control appears to be that worst example of pay-to-play politics."

The Democratic Party hit back, saying Republicans were lurching "from one conspiracy to another" with partisan politics as "their sole driving force."

Last month, Woodhouse accused state Attorney General Josh Stein, who like Cooper is a Democrat, of using the "full police powers of the state" to come down on the state GOP after a division of Stein's office sent the party a letter seeking more information about a robocall complaint filed by the state Democratic Party over GOP candidate recruitment.
The 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which will run from West Virginia to North Carolina and cost $5 billion to build, is designed to meet the growing need for natural gas in eastern North Carolina.

Cooper and his administration have acknowledged the poor optics of the pipeline fund, announced within an hour of DEQ announcing approval of the pipeline's water permit. But they've said there was no ill intent and that the governor planned to use the money to help eastern North Carolina hook into the gas supply.

DEQ officials have said they had little choice but to approve the permit because the pipeline plans satisfied state law. Federal regulators, as well as state regulators in Virginia and West Virginia, have given similar approvals for the 600-mile pipeline, which a quartet of energy companies, including Duke Energy and Dominion Energy, plan to have online in 2019.

Trees are being felled now along the route from central West Virginia to southeastern North Carolina.

North Carolina's mitigation fund was laid out in a memorandum of understanding between Cooper's in-house attorney, William McKinney, and the pipeline coalition, and it called on the pipeline companies to deposit money in an account named by the governor. The money would go toward environmental mitigation, economic development and renewable energy projects along the route, according to the memorandum.
The governor would later say that the plan was to run the mitigation money through groups such as the Rural Infrastructure Authority and the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, with assurances in place for transparency. Those details weren't written down, though.
The money hasn't yet flowed, and the North Carolina General Assembly quickly stepped in to reroute the fund, saying in legislation passed last month that it would be spent instead on public schools along the pipeline route. GOP leaders in the General Assembly have suggested they may subpoena members of the Cooper administration to answer questions about the pipeline fund, but so far they have not.

The pipeline companies have a similar mitigation fund deal with the state of Virginia, and they're working on one with West Virginia. But Virginia's agreement was between the pipeline coalition and the state, signed by then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe's secretary of natural resources. It named groups that would receive funding.

North Carolina's agreement was between the coalition and the governor, in his official capacity, a decision the Cooper administration said it made to keep a GOP legislative majority that it does not trust from controlling the money. McKinney signed on Cooper's behalf, and the memorandum said a future executive order would flesh out details.

The money would have flowed to "an escrow account designated by a third party selected by the governor."

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