Did state approval of the North Carolina segment of the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline depend on Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration securing a $57.8-million discretionary “mitigation fund” with the pipeline operators? Documents obtained by Carolina Journal suggest it did. The federal government approved the pipeline in October 2017, but the state did not sign off on...
From the time it was announced in January, the agreement between Gov. Roy Cooper and the companies building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline invited questions about its constitutionality, legality, and practicality. North Carolinians are poised to get answers when work by a subcommittee of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations gets under way Nov. 14. At...
The General Assembly’s newly created subcommittees to investigate the pace of spending on recovery efforts for Hurricane Matthew and the unusual side fund negotiated by the Cooper administration with the operation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are complete. In a Thursday, Sept. 6, press release, from the office of House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said:...
Republican legislative leaders fear more lawsuits and constitutional showdowns with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper will occur if, in their view, he keeps stepping on their control over state revenues. The concerns surfaced during a Wednesday, Aug. 29, meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Governmental Operations. Lawmakers created an investigative subcommittee to probe Cooper’s involvement...
Republican primary, state Senate District 34 (Iredell and Yadkin Counties) A.J. Daoud. Education: B.S. Barry University, MBA University of Phoenix. Occupation: Funeral director, including Huff Funeral Home in Yadkin County. Career highlights: Former police officer. Sixth Congressional District Chairman for NCGOP. N.C. Lottery Commissioner. William “Bill” Howell. Education: A.S. Wingate College. B.A. Catawba College. Occupation:...
House Minority Leader Darren Jackson, D-Wake, says Gov. Roy Cooper was within his constitutional authority to create a $57.8 million side deal to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. But he thinks the relevant public records should be released to show precisely how it came about. Jackson, flanked by state Reps. Garland Pierce, D-Scotland, and Bobbie Richardson,...
It seems like all public officials celebrate transparency, until it applies to them. Case in point: Gov. Roy Cooper, who (years ago as attorney general) wrote the introduction to the North Carolina Guide to Open Government and Public Records for the N.C. Press Association. “The spirit with which public officials work to comply with the...
The state Republican Party has asked for a federal investigation of the side deal struck between the Cooper administration and the utilities that will operate the $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline. At a Tuesday press conference at the federal courthouse in Raleigh, NCGOP Chairman Robin Hayes and Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse announced the complaint against...
Tracing the ownership of the land hosting a Nash County solar farm built on a former cow pasture is complicated business. [Editor’s note: The headline of this story was changed to reflect new information from Judge Pell Cooper. See correction below.] On his Statement of Economic Interest covering 2014, then-Attorney General Roy Cooper, in November...
The last week of March could be a busy one for the Cooper administration. In a press release issued Wednesday, March 7, Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee, called on legislative leaders to open a formal investigation of the controversial side deal Gov. Roy Cooper worked out with operators of the...
State Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union, said Gov. Roy Cooper created a slush fund 10 times larger than actual mitigation costs by preying on vulnerable energy utilities seeking approval of a state permit to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The secret $57.8 million escrow account Cooper negotiated has poisoned the process, and the companies should not...
