A veteran Raleigh hand speculates about what’s behind the Republican shenanigans on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline mitigation fund:

“The kerfuffle over the natural gas pipeline fund proves once again that nobody in Raleigh knows what they’re doing. Or does it?

“On the surface, the Governor and his team appeared seriously naïve to think the mitigation fund wouldn’t be linked to the issuance of environmental permits, which magically sprang forth when the funding deal was finalized. On the other side of the deal, the utilities appeared totally clueless in their political thinking when their plan was to give a Democratic governor some play money and leave the GOP legislature out of the discussion.

“But, there’s the faint smell of a rat in the air. It sure looks like the utilities could’ve been played by the Republicans in a ruse to embarrass the governor. ‘Sure,’ the GOP leaders probably said to the oblivious utility lobbyists, ‘go ahead and work with the governor. We’ll be just fine.’ Then, as soon as the ink was dry, the GOP called the governor corrupt, called for an ethics investigation, and told the parties that their MOU was meaningless.

“Whether it was a colossal screw-up or a clever scheme, everybody (except ratepayers) stumbled into getting what they want: utilities get a massive new capital investment in their rate base, the governor gets some economic development down east, and the GOP gets control of the pipeline fund and a chance to embarrass its rival in the governor’s office.”