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 of these places could tell pipeline battle stories from the frontlines of the eco-wars, ranging from depressingly tragic to courageously inspiring.

Now the swamp-dwellers of the southeastern US are jumping into the fray, and in a big way—1.1 billion cubic feet of gas per day kind of big.

There’s more in that post, including this note:

A total of thirteen hearings were conducted, starting on March 3 in Albany Georgia and ending in Clermont, FL on March 27. A group calling itself SpectraBusters popped up along the route to coordinate opposition to the permitting of the pipeline and hundreds of people turned out for the hearings, primarily local residents in opposition to having a pipeline through their homes, farms and forests.

That post mentions at least two groups of Seminoles opposed to an FPL natural gas plant in Hendry County, Florida, which neither Spectra nor FPL will confirm would get its fracked methane from the Sabal Trail pipeline. This is the same plant about which the EPA asked FERC:

• Proposed New Power Plants: EPA recommends FERC discuss in its EIS whether Florida Power & Light’s proposed new Hendry County, FL, natural gas/solar plant will obtain its natural gas from the proposed action and whether any new pipeline will need to be constructed. Additionally, indications exist FPL may be constructing two other new power plants in Florida to run mostly on natural gas.¹ EPA recommends all necessary piping to all anticipated new power plants be included in FERC’s environmental analysis if natural gas from the proposed action will be used in their operations.

FPL Ten Year Power Plant Site Plan 2014-2023

Here’s a history of six years of resistance to FPL “natural” gas power plants: FPL brings pipeline wars to Florida’s Everglades,

FPL garnered nationwide attention from environmental activists when an Earth First! action shut down a construction site of theirs in 2008. The Everglades EF! group joined the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition in a several year campaign obstructing the plant and its needed infrastructure. Over 50 activists were arrested in occupations and blockades and half-dozen lawsuits were filed, dragging the energy company through multiple court cases—including a civil suit ongoing to this day in Martin County, home to the famous old-growth bald cypress trees of Barley Barber swamp.

There’s more in that post, too.

-jsq

Short Link: