RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's administration says it's provided thousands of pages to Republican legislators about a $58 million side deal Cooper's office reached with utilities planning to build a natural gas pipeline.
Cooper's office announced Thursday the electronic posting of the documents.
GOP leaders sent multiple requests for information this year about last January's memorandum of understanding reached with Atlantic Coast Pipeline developers. The governor's office called legislators' demands a political fishing expedition, largely rebuffed until now.
The money would have been disbursed for environmental mitigation and other projects, but lawmakers passed a law essentially intercepting it for public schools near the pipeline route.
A statement announcing the documents said the memorandum had nothing to do with the "rigorous and fact-based" review of a water permit developers ultimately received.
