Gov. Roy Cooper’s office did coordinate with state environmental officials on the timing of a key water quality permit approval and a controversial $57.8 million deal with Dominion Energy over the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. But a Policy Watch review of more than 19,000 pages of public records found no evidence that the voluntary fund, outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding between Cooper’s office and Dominion, explicitly greased the way for project to proceed.

Republican lawmakers have repeatedly alleged that the permit approval was contingent upon Dominion ponying up $57.8 million for a voluntary economic development fund. Both the approval and the fund were announced on the same day, Jan. 26, 2018, just 23 minutes apart.

Ten months after the media, including Policy Watch, and several environmental advocates filed Public Records requests seeking information about how the deal was struck, the governor’s office responded on Dec. 20 at 6 p.m., providing more than 5,700 documents totaling 19,000 pages. (WRAL has made these documents public on its website.)

Republican lawmakers also received the records; they had attempted to informally get documents from the governor’s office, but receiving no response, later filed a formal public records request. Last month, a legislative subcommittee also hired Eagle Intel, a private firm of three former special agents — one FBI and two IRS — to investigate the governor’s office and the circumstances behind the MOU.

Under the MOU, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy would have paid $57.8 million to an escrow fund, which would have been under the governor’s, not lawmakers’ or the state treasurer’s, control. The money would be used for economic development and renewable energy projects in the eight counties along the ACP route: Northampton, Halifax, Nash, Wilson, Johnston, Cumberland, Sampson and Robeson.

Last year, the legislature passed a law to remove the fund from the governor’s control and redirect the money — not yet due — to public school districts in those counties. The bill and the vote appeared to be political posturing: Lawmakers could continue their pattern of challenging the governor’s authority, while claiming to give money to chronically underfunded public schools.

The main takeaways