Spectra is haunting Atlanta, too! They call it the Rennaisance Project, from Columbia, Tennessee through northern Alabama and north Georgia to Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County.

Staff Graphic for timesfreepress.com by Laura W. McNutt

Ben Benton wrote for timesfreepress.com 13 May 2012, Natural gas pipeline considered for tri-state region,

A high-volume natural gas pipeline could wind across a 230-mile gap from South Central Tennessee through North Alabama and Northwest Georgia on its way to link with a pipeline northeast of Atlanta.

Officials with Houston, Texas-based Spectra Energy Corp. say that, if a green light follows assessments by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other federal, state and local authorities, the proposed pipeline will connect directly the company’s Texas Eastern system in Columbia, Tenn., to the Transco Interstate pipeline system near Lawrenceville, Ga.

The pipeline’s capacity is projected at 1.25 billion cubic feet per day, and it could be operational by mid-2016, Spectra Energy spokeswoman Andrea Grover said.

The project is “still in the early development stage,” she said, and the company recently did a study to see if there’s any interest in the pipeline project from the natural gas industry.

The article says Spectra was trying to work out an agreement with AGL Resources, parent company of Atlanta Gas Light Co. and Chattanooga Gas Co. Spectra’s own Renaissance Project web page says

Spectra Energy Corp has completed a non-binding open season for the Renaissance project and has executed a letter of intent with AGL Resources to explore a joint business arrangement and transportation service options for the local distribution companies owned by AGL Resources that operate near the proposed pipeline. Spectra Energy is currently soliciting further interest from additional shippers.

And Spectra was already preparing to send letters to landowners asking for survey permission. Sound familiar? And the contact for RP is Andrea Grover, same as for Sabal Trail.

So, Atlanta, Spectra’s Sabal Trail Transmission pipeline through south Alabama and south Georgia and north Florida may seem far away, but Spectra’s coming for you, too!

Some people at TVA seem to think replacing one bad idea (the Bellefonte nuke) with another bad idea (natural gas) is somehow good, even now that solar is cheaper and much safer than natural gas:

Horace Clemmons, a commissioner in Jackson County, Ala., said the pipeline could be an economic boon for his county, and he has called on the Tennessee Valley Authority to look at the idea of converting its Widows Creek power plant from coal to natural gas.

A conversion of Widows Creek “would ensure that we do not lose jobs from a plant shutdown and it would add construction jobs,” Clemmons wrote in a recent letter to TVA public relations liaison Jason Harper.

Clemmons said gas-powered electricity production could enhance current plans for a nuclear facility at the Bellefonte plant in Hollywood, Ala., by getting power production up and running sooner and allowing more time for the nuclear project.

He said he knew of no naysayers to the pipeline, but opponents might emerge from the Bridgeport area, where a natural gas explosion in January 1999 killed three people and injured seven.

According to newspaper archives, the blast leveled three buildings downtown and shattered windows more than a mile away. The National Transportation Safety Board said after the blast that a gas feeder line to a building used by Boy Scouts was separated in two places, according to newspaper archives.

Even so, “I have fewer concerns about a gas pipeline coming through than I do with Browns Ferry, Bellefonte and Watts Bar,” Clemmons said. In the event of a nuclear accident, “the consequences are significantly worse than they would be with a gas pipeline,” he said.

And even less with solar power.

-jsq

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