Thursday, January 9, 2020

Atlantic Coast Pipeline: The Policy of Truth

You had something to hide, should have hidden it, shouldn't you. Now you're not satisfied with what you're being put through ~Policy of Truth by Depeche Mode



The letter pasted below was sent to the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on December 31, 2019. Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League works with impacted landowners and residents in the path of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The day that DEQ announced the approval of the major water quality permit for the ACP, the Governor announced a "mitigation fund." This understandably raised questions and concerns in the communities impacted by the pipeline. After reviewing over 20,000 pages of emails, notes, and texts released by the Cooper Administration ( took almost a year to get them) we had more questions regarding the  the approval of the ACP. For example, impacted communities repeatedly asked to meet with Governor Cooper; to no avail. Yet he had plenty of time to meet with Duke and Dominion Energy, major partners in the ACP. Questions remain. The farmers and families in the path of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline deserve answers. 




Dear Secretary Regan:

Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) has chapters in 7 of the 8 counties impacted by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP).  Members of our chapters are landowners, families that live within the “blast zone” of the proposed pipeline, and other concerned residents. On January 26, 2018, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued the 401 Water Quality Certification (401) for the ACP. On the same day, Governor Roy Cooper announced a “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) with ACP that would establish a 57.8 million dollar “mitigation” fund. Immediately, communities impacted by the proposed pipeline, the media, environmental advocates and others began questioning the integrity of the 401 Certification.

From the time that ACP submitted their application for the 401 in May of 2017, DEQ repeatedly assured the public that decisions about the permit would be based strictly on science. In addition to the questions raised about the process by the establishment of the MOU and the concurrent announcement of the 401, public records released by the Cooper Administration in December of 2018 cast additional doubt on the permitting process. [1]

On December 12, 2018, investigators were retained by the North Carolina General Assembly to look into the ACP MOU. On November 20, 2019, the investigators, Eagle Intel Services, LLC (Eagle) presented their report to the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations Atlantic Coast Pipeline Subcommittee. The report makes a troubling claim—that “The Governor controlled the 401 Water Quality Certification (401 WQC), process and timing of issuance at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), being sought by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) partnership, in which Duke was a partner.”[2]

This claim is supported by Eagle’s interview[3] with Kathy Hawkins, the North Carolina Vice-President of Governmental Affairs for Duke Energy. Eagle’s report of the interview states that “As previously discussed with the investigators, she recalled, on December 19, 2017, that he [Ken Eudy- Senior policy Advisor to Governor Roy Cooper] told her [Kathy Hawkins] the Governor and not Secretary Regan would be making the decision on the 401 Certification.” Ms. Hawkins also provided a text that she sent to Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good:


 Secretary Regan, is the information in the report accurate? Did Governor Cooper make the decision on the 401 Certification for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline? You and your staff repeatedly insisted that politics would not and did not impact the decision to issue the 401 for the ACP. The communities impacted by this decision deserve to know the truth.

We look forward to your answer.

Sincerely,
Therese Vick
North Carolina Healthy, Sustainable Communities/Coal Ash Campaign Coordinator






[1] Fain, Travis and Dukes, Tyler. “Cooper administration releases thousands of Atlantic Coast Pipeline documents.” WRAL.com.  20 December 2018, https://www.wral.com/cooper-administration-releases-thousands-of-atlantic-coast-pipeline-documents/18078236/. Note: In January 2018, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) requested meeting and call notes, texts, emails and phone logs from DEQ staff, including upper management. While permitting staff provided some of these records, most in upper management did not. In fact, there were emails to some of these individuals in the records released by the Administration that had not been provided to BREDL by DEQ.
[2] Eagle Intel Services, LLC. Report for Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations of the North Carolina General Assembly on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. 20 November 2019. Page 10.

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