Monthly Archives: June 2014

Spectra Pipeline into Southern Swamps –Earth First!

EPA, FERC, Florida, , , , , , , , , , ,

Opposition from the south end of the proposed pipeline route, from a group that has been opposing FPL fracked methane power plants since 2008.

Panagioti wrote for Earth First! Newswire 6 April 2014, Spectra Seeks Approval to Send Gas Pipeline into the Southern Swamps,

What would you do if a corporation got permits to build a time bomb on your land?

Rural communities across Alabama, Georgia and Florida are joining the chorus of people asking this all-too-familiar question.

But resistance to proposed fossil fuel pipelines has been growing… almost as frequent as the steady stream of disasters from existing pipelines.

New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, B.C., Ontario…. Each Continue reading Spectra Pipeline into Southern Swamps –Earth First! →

Norman Bay new FERC Chair?

FERC, Solar, , , , , , , , , , , ,

The fossil fuel industries that fund FERC also control enough Senate seats to make approving a non-fracking FERC chair very difficult. Did they just do so?

Michael Coleman wrote for the Albequerque Journal 18 June 2014, Senate committee approves NM’s Norman Bay to lead FERC,

Norman Bay, a former U.S. Attorney in New Mexico and University of New Mexico School of Law professor, won support from a key Senate panel today in his bid to become head the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but not without some significant objections from committee members.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 13-9 to approve President Obama’s nomination of Bay to the powerful regulatory post.

That article has various verbiage about how well Bay knows energy. But why did it take so long to find a replacement after former FERC Chair Jon Wellinghoff resigned last November? Wellinghoff resigned after allegations Continue reading Norman Bay new FERC Chair? →

150-foot flames from methane pipeline explosion in east Texas 2014-06-26

Explosion, Hazards, LNG, Texas, , , , , , , , , , , ,

An explosion from the much larger proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline could be much worse. And remember, much of this toxic fossil fuel pushing through leaking veins throughout the country is for export to other countries, to profit a few companies at locals’ expense. Maybe you’d like to come to Leesburg, GA to say a few words about that.

ABC 13 Eyewitness News wrote 26 June 2014, Gas line explosion sends 150-foot flames up in air,

EAST BERNARD, TX (KTRK) — Authorities are investigating an gas explosion near a compressor plant just west of East Bernard in Wharton County.

It happened at FM 1164 just south of Highway 59.

According to the Office of Emergency Management, a gas line adjacent to the Kinder Morgan compressor plant blew out, destroying the roadway and catching a nearby truck on fire. Flames as has as 150 feet were shooting out of the blaze.

One person suffered a minor injury and was transported to Oak Bend Hospital in stable condition.

Continue reading 150-foot flames from methane pipeline explosion in east Texas 2014-06-26 →

Peaceful Assembly at Pipeline Trial, Leesburg, GA, July 10th 2014

Georgia, Law, Lee County, PR, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A landowner is suing Sabal Trail Transmission for going on their land after being told not to. It’s a public hearing, so interested parties can come from anywhere to attend in a peaceful, lawful assembly.

Update 2014-07-08: See press release.

If the place or date gets changed, everyone is invited to come anyway. , PDF 

Date:Thursday 10 July 2014
Times:10AM assemble outside
11AM hearing inside
Where:  Lee County Courthouse
100 Leslie Highway
Leesburg, Georgia 31763
Case:Sabal Trail Transmission v. James E. Bell II and Robert Bell
Case number 14CV208RS
What:Alabamians, Georgians, Floridians, and everyone opposed to this unnecessary fracked methane pipeline, here is an opportunity to show you don’t want this hazardous destruction of the environment and property rights so a few companies can profit at everyone else’s expense.

You can also do some of these other things: Continue reading Peaceful Assembly at Pipeline Trial, Leesburg, GA, July 10th 2014 →

See the FERC rubberstamp machine in action

Agriculture, Colquitt County, FERC, Florida, Georgia, Gilchrist County, Hazards, Law, LNG, Lowndes County, Trees, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

You’ve heard the song, now see the FERC rubberstamp machine in action in videos of Sabal Trail interrogated in Gilchrist County, Florida @ GCC 2014-02-20, of the Valdosta FERC Scoping Meeting @ FERC 2014-03-04, and of the Moultrie FERC Scoping Meeting @ FERC 2014-03-05. See FERC refuse to release a tax-paid RFP and tax-paid-staff-reviewed proposals for an environmental contractor, and then see that very same contractor admit that the Sabal Trail pipeline would take twice the acreage to produce as much power as solar PV, while FERC refuses to consider that the pipeline would be far more environmentally damaging, more expensive, and would take much longer.

Nevermind landowners get only a one-time payment from the pipeline company, not rent and FERC has no Continue reading See the FERC rubberstamp machine in action →

Song: We all know FERC’s a Rubber Stamp Machine!

Ethics, FERC, Law, New York, , , , ,

We’ve all seen it here in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, and our allies from New York went to FERC in DC to sing it: FERC’s a rubberstamp machine!

Here’s the video:


We all know FERC’s a Rubber Stamp Machine!
Video by NY Friends of Clean Air and Water

We all know FERC’s a Rubber Stamp Machine!
(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
Recorded the 1 May 2014 (day of Minisink trial at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals).

LYRICS:
We’re here at FERC to have our say
So listen closely, don’t walk away
This is your country It’s yours to save Continue reading Song: We all know FERC’s a Rubber Stamp Machine! →

20 MW Solar at Hazlehurst, GA by Silicon Ranch for Green Power EMC

Georgia, Jeff Davis, Solar, , , , , , ,

After the 30+ MW solar farm in Social Circle, Walton County, GA for Georgia Power, another 20 MW one near Hazelhurst, Jeff Davis County, GA for Green Power EMC. Do this every month and Georgia will start to catch up with other states such as New Jersey. Somebody tell FERC solar is faster, cheaper, and far far cleaner than a dirty, dangerous, land-grabbing fracked methane pipeline.

PR 20 June 2014, Green Power EMC Project Boosts GA’s Supply of Solar Energy,

Green Power EMC, the renewable energy supplier for 38 Georgia Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs), has reached an agreement to purchase the full output of a new 20 megawatt (MW) solar project planned for construction in southeast Georgia.

The ground-mounted solar project will be constructed near Hazlehurst, Ga., in Jeff Davis County. It will be one of the largest solar generating facilities in Georgia. The solar array will occupy approximately 135 acres and will incorporate over 87,000 solar modules. Once completed, the solar array will generate more than 43,000 megawatt hours of clean, renewable electricity annually.

Under an agreement with owner-operator Silicon Ranch Corporation, Continue reading 20 MW Solar at Hazlehurst, GA by Silicon Ranch for Green Power EMC →

Brenham, Texas, and the highly dangerous character of gas and its tendency to escape

Explosion, Florida, Hazards, Law, Leak, LNG, Safety, Texas, Washington County, , , , , , , , , , ,

Imagine the fireball in 1992 in Brenham, Texas on your land or next to your children’s school or in Riviera Beach or Tampa or Jacksonville. The pipeline companies that stored too much “natural” gas in a cavern 2,000 feet below ground that leaked and exploded and killed and injured people, incinerated cattle, and destroyed houses got off on some charges because they believed their own PR that their inherently dangerous product was safe. Will you accept a pipeline company’s bet that a yard-wide pipeline only a few feet below ground won’t leak or that an LNG storage or export facility in a highly populated area won’t leak? Or should we get on with clean, fast, safe, solar power in the Sunshine State and everywhere else?

A retired Air Force Colonel with an advanced degree in nuclear physics, Walter Carss, was an eye witness to the explosion. Carss said the countryside was suddenly illuminated by a brilliant flash of light. Turning in his chair, Carss looked in the direction of the cavern. There, he observed an enormous fireball billowing skyward. As the fireball cooled, it began to turn into a huge pillar of grey smoke. Carss then noticed a visible shock wave racing across the rural landscape. He watched the shock wave rip Continue reading Brenham, Texas, and the highly dangerous character of gas and its tendency to escape →

Say No to Sabal Trail! –Gulf Restoration Network

Environment, Explosion, FERC, Florida, Hazards, Leak, Water, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

You can join this new ally in telling FERC to say no to that useless, damaging, and dangerous fracked methane Sabal Trail pipeline.

Cathy Harrelson wrote for Gulf Restoration Network 12 June 2014, Say ‘No’ to the Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Florida’s besieged waterways are facing a new threat: Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, wants to run a natural gas pipeline over, under and through our aquifers, rivers and springsheds. Our waters are already under threat from runoff pollution and over-pumping, and this major pipeline would risk sinkholes, gas leaks and aquifer contamination. Florida’s water is too important to take these risks— but we can say ‘no’ today!

Sabal Trail is seeking Continue reading Say No to Sabal Trail! –Gulf Restoration Network →

Pipeline EIA insufficient without interstate highway option –EPA

Constitution Pipeline, EPA, FE, FERC, Hazards, Law, New York, Pennsylvania, , , , , , , , , , , ,

If FERC needs to consider an interstate highway route for the Constitution Pipeline through Pennsylvania and New York State, it also needs to consider running down I-75 through Georgia and Florida for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline. Just as numerous state and federal agencies insisted on that in New York and Pennsylvania, state agencies in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and the same federal agencies can insist on the same for the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> FSC 100-foot-wide gash to the sea.

Joe Mahoney wrote for The Daily Star 17 April 2014, EPA deems pipeline study ‘insufficient’,

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that a draft report on the environmental impacts of the proposed Constitution Pipeline is “insufficient,” and that a potential option of co-locating the transmission line along Interstate 88 “has Continue reading Pipeline EIA insufficient without interstate highway option –EPA →