The utility companies responsible for building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline were confident they would get the environmental permits they needed to start construction in North Carolina. What they didn’t know is whether they would win approval in time to avoid costly delays. The Cooper administration had leverage over the timing and appeared to use it...
Did Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration require operators of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to provide Cooper a $57.8-milion “mitigation fund” before the state would approve the portion of the pipeline heading through North Carolina? Reporting by Carolina Journal suggests it did. The results of a legislative investigation into the issue will be released this week. The Joint Legislative...
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline remains on hold. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday, July 26, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to follow the Endangered Species Act when it approved a permit for the ACP. This is the second time this court has considered the issue. The pipeline is supposed to...
It started with a simple request on Saturday morning, Jan. 13, 2018. Duke Energy lobbyist Kathy Hawkins asked Ken Eudy, Gov. Roy Cooper’s senior adviser, to help expedite a state official’s signature on an agreement tied to Duke’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. Hawkins told Eudy the state needed to sign the agreement before the Federal...
Two executive orders President Donald Trump signed Wednesday, April 10, could expedite completion of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and other interstate energy transmission projects that have been delayed by state regulators. Pipeline permit-delaying tactics by officials in Washington, D.C., and New York influenced Trump’s decision to sign the executive orders. Energy companies also have pressured...
Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC was formed in 2014. The consortium would build a 600-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina. The next year, ACP filed an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; ACP would also need environmental permits in each of the three states and applied for...
Quoting a Dr. Seuss character, a panel of 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges vacated a vital U.S. Forest Service permit developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline need to continue work on the 604-mile natural gas transmission line from West Virginia to North Carolina. The matter was returned to the Forest Service for further...
A team of former federal special agents with a rich background investigating public corruption and fraud will dig through documents and interview members of Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration to determine whether his $57.8 million Atlantic Coast Pipeline discretionary fund was a political pay-to-play scheme. “This matter is not a criminal matter so far as we...
Who is Doug Heyl? Members of a special legislative committee looking into the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would like to know. Heyl is a top communications official in the state Department of Environmental Quality. But what role did Heyl play in the pipeline permitting process? Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, flashed a PowerPoint presentation during a meeting...
A legislative panel is hiring a special outside investigator to get answers from Gov. Roy Cooper about his creation of a $57.8 million discretionary fund tied to payments from Atlantic Coast Pipeline partners. A Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations subcommittee voted Wednesday, Nov. 14, to probe whether Cooper’s conduct was legal. The special investigator...
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...
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