All posts by John S. Quarterman

Proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline Threatens Southwest Georgia Communities –in Georgia Sierran

April 28, 2014Alabama, Colquitt County, Dougherty County, Economy, Environment, FE, FERC, Florida, Georgia, Gilchrist County, Hazards, LNG, Lowndes County, Safety, Solar, WaterAlabama, aquifer, China, Colquitt County, Dougherty County, Economy, environment, FE, FERC, Florida, Floridan Aquifer, FPL, FTA, Georgia, Gilchrist County, gopher tortoise, Hazards, Houston, John S. Quarterman, Juno Beach, LNG, LNG export, Lowndes County, Port Dolphin, Sabal Trail Transmission, Safety, solar, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, TPP, TTIP, WaterJohn S. Quarterman

In the April-May-June ~~2004~~ 2014 issue of Georgia Sierran Georgia Sierra Club‘s Chapter newsletter. The same issue has an excellent article on Georgia’s aquifers, including the Floridan Aquifer that is a drinking water source for all of Florida, through which the Sabal Trail pipeline proposes to bulldoze.

Proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline Threatens
Southwest Georgia Communities

By John Quarterman
Why should a shell corporation owned by two companies in Houston, Texas and Juno Beach, Florida get to take Georgians’ property to pipe fracked methane to Florida through our fragile karst limestone drinking water aquifer?

Yet that’s what Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, proposes to do, Continue reading Proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline Threatens Southwest Georgia Communities –in Georgia Sierran →

EPA comments in Moultrie Observer

April 28, 2014Agriculture, Colquitt County, Dougherty County, FERC, Georgia, Hazards, Safety, Trees, WaterAlbany, Chickasawhatchee Swamp, Colquitt County, Dougherty County, EPA, FERC, Flint River, Georgia, Hazards, iron pipeline, John S. Quarterman, longleaf pine, Ochlockonee River, Radium Springs, Sabal Trail Transmission, Safety, SONAT, SpectraBusters, Trees, WaterJohn S. Quarterman

The Colquitt County newspaper noticed the EPA questions to FERC about the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, and even got sort of a response out of Sabal Trail.

Alan Mauldin wrote for the Moultrie Observer 26 April 2014, EPA letter lists concerns with Sabal Trail,

One issue raised by EPA is whether laying a new, 36-inch pipeline in proximity to a 10-inch pipeline built in the 1950s would present a danger to the public.

The alternate route that would take the pipeline through the heart of Colquitt County would for some of its path run parallel to the old iron pipeline.

“Consequently, concerns exist with the safety of Continue reading EPA comments in Moultrie Observer →

Can Sabal Trail fracked methane go to China?

April 26, 2014British Columbia, FE, FERC, Florida, LNG, Martin CountyAES, Bahamas, British Columbia, Carib Energy, China, Crowley Maritime, EU, Europe, export, FE, FERC, Florida, Florida Southeast Connection, Floridian LNG, Ford, FPL, India, Japan, John S. Quarterman, LNG, Martin County, Ocean Express, Russia, Sabal Trail Transmission, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, TPP, Transco, TTIP, Ukraine, WilliamsJohn S. Quarterman

People talk about LNG exports to China through the Transco – Sabal Trail – Florida Southeast Connection pipeline, even though FPL says it knows nothing about exports through that Southeast Market Pipelines Project (SMPP), and FERC also seems to know nothing. If that fracked gas really can go to China, where’s FERC’s rationale for federal eminent domain, which depends on Florida needing the gas? Nevermind FPL’s own 10-Year Site Plan doesn’t support a need for the gas, and EPA doesn’t buy what it’s seen as rationalizations for that alleged need: can the gas go to China?

FERC has admitted in more than one Scoping Meeting that it’s not the pipeline company that has to get export authorization: it’s the end user. And FPL is not the only end user and FERC is not the only export-authorizing agency. Continue reading Can Sabal Trail fracked methane go to China? →

FPL supports solar power without spending money on it –FPL to FERC

April 25, 2014FE, FERC, Law, LNG, Martin County, Okeechobee County, SolarCape Canaveral, Carib Energy, coal, Crowley Maritime, EPA, export, FE, FERC, FL PSC, Florida Southeast Connection, Floridian LNG, John S. Quarterman, Law, LNG, Martin County, oil, Okeechobee County, Pam Rauch, Sabal Trail Transmission, SMP, solar, Southeast Market Pipelines, SpectraBusters, Transco, WilliamsJohn S. Quarterman

FPL doubled down on a need because it claims fracked methane is “clean”, in its FERC filing of 21 April 2014. FPL says it is “a strong supporter of solar power” even though it didn’t increase its solar capacity from 2010 to 2013 because of the lame baseload capacity excuse. FPL says it knows nothing about Export of Gas, even though Floridian LNG, located next to FPL’s Martin County “Clean Energy” Center right at the end of the Transco-Sabal-FSC pipeline, was approved for LNG export by the U.S. DoE Office Fossil Energy (FE) 14 November 2013, and Crowley Maritime’s Carib Energy was approved for export from Florida by FE 27 July 2011. And FPL says its ratepayers are not paying the costs of the pipeline, even though FPL VP of development and external affairs Pam Rauch argued in pring 29 July 2012 for a “Clean Energy” (fracked methane) Center at Cape Canaveral that was one of several mentioned by the Tampa Times 24 October 2014 as a reason for a new pipeline, and that same Pam Rauch filed PF14-2 with FERC for the Florida Southeast Connection (FSC) pipeline that connects from Sabal Trail to FPL’s “Clean Energy” Center in Martin County, next to Floridian LNG. FPL doesn’t seem to know what’s going on next to it, and maybe not what its own employees are doing. I hope EPA doesn’t consider the questions it filed with FERC the same day answered by this weak tea from FPL.

April 21, 2014
Ms. Kimberly D. Bose
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20426
Subject: Southeast Market Pipelines Project
Docket Nos. PF14-1-000, PF14-2-000, and PF14-6-000
Dear Ms. Bose:
Florida Power & Light Company (“FPL”) hereby submits these comments in response Continue reading FPL supports solar power without spending money on it –FPL to FERC →

The EPA’s questions must be given serious thought by FERC –Beth Gordon

April 24, 2014Economy, Environment, FERC, Law, LNGBeth Gordon, Economy, eminent domain, environment, EPA, FERC, FPL, Keystone XL, Law, LNG, Sabal Trail Transmission, Spectra Energy, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

Published with permission of the author, who stressed she sent this email “Not as a member of Spectrabusters. Just me.” I added a few links. -jsq

From: Beth Gordon
Date: April 24, 2014, 8:15:30 AM EDT
To: John Peconom of FERC
Subject: EPA comments
Dear Mr. Peconum,
Does FERC, or Spectra, intend answer the questions posed by the EPA? I read their posted comments yesterday. They obviously share many people’s feeling that Sabal Trail’s claims don’t add up. Florida doesn’t need this gas. In fact right now, Florida has so much that we store it. Spectra and FPL need this amount of gas for LNG plants for export, obviously. And for the Riviera beach connection to a 46 inch pipeline to run to the Bahamas undersea. Switching over one coal plant doesn’t justify a 3 billion dollar pipeline. Especially where FPL has raised, rather than lowered, electric bills on account of this endeavor.
The EPA’s questions must be given serious thought by FERC before it awards this project, and the eminent domain rights attendant to it. Floridians will see no Continue reading The EPA’s questions must be given serious thought by FERC –Beth Gordon →

Executive Order 13406: Protecting the Property Rights of the American People

April 24, 2014LawAttorney General, Department of Justice, Fifth Amendment, George W. Bush, Land Acquisition Section, Law, Natural Resources Division, private property, SpectraBusters, takingsJohn S. Quarterman

This document appears to say the federal government can’t take private property “merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties”, which would seem to preclude federal eminent domain being applied for the Sabal Trail pipeline if its gas is really for export.

Executive Order 13406 of June 23, 2006,
Protecting the Property Rights of the American People,

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to strengthen the rights of the American people against the taking of their private property, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to protect the rights of Americans to their private property, including by limiting the taking of private property by the Federal Government to situations in which the taking is for public use, with just compensation, and for the purpose of benefiting the general public and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken. Continue reading Executive Order 13406: Protecting the Property Rights of the American People →

FPL’s own projections don’t support need for a new pipeline

April 24, 2014Economy, FERC, Florida, Solardeath spiral, Economy, EPA, FERC, FL PSC, Florida, FPL, John S. Quarterman, Jon Wellinghoff, power, projection, PV, Sabal Trail Transmission, solar, SpectraBusters, windJohn S. Quarterman

How does a 13% projected power increase justify a ~~33%~~ 50% increase in fracked methane delivered by a third new pipeline? And why isn’t FPL doing more with solar power in the Sunshine State?

Updated 12 August 2014: Fixed 50% increase, which was so absurdly high that I didn’t believe it when I first wrote this. Yet 3/2 is a 50% increase.

FPL’s 10-Year Site Plan web page says:

FPL submitted its 10-Year Power Plant Site Plan 2014-2023 to the Florida Public Service Commission in April 2014.

The document includes on page 37 FPL’s own Schedule 2.1 History and Forecast of Energy Consumption And Number of Customers by Customer Class (Projected), which shows 55,739 GWh for 2014 and 62,870 GWh projected for 2023. That’s an increase of 13% over a decade. How does that (very aggressive) forecasted increase justify a natural gas increase of ~~33%~~ 50% by adding a third pipeline? (And by the way, those numbers are significantly less than the numbers in FPL’s 2011 plan of Continue reading FPL’s own projections don’t support need for a new pipeline →

Explain why the gas is needed –EPA to FERC

April 23, 2014Environment, FERC, Florida, Law, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Watercaves, Clean Air Act, CO2, environment, EPA, export, FERC, FGT, Florida, Florida Gas Transmission, Gulf of Mexico, Gulfstream, John S. Quarterman, karst, landfill, Law, limestone, LNG, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Port Dolphin, SpectraBusters, swamp, Tennessee, Texas, Transco, Water, wetlands, WilliamsJohn S. Quarterman

EPA isn’t buying FPL’s need for new power in Florida,

or that methane is better than many alternatives (including that renewable energy sources should be considered together, not separately), or that a pipeline is the best way to get gas (specifically suggesting Port Dolphin instead), or that any of the proposed routes are appropriate, not to mention catching inconsistent numbers of compressor stations and asking to see any non-FPL customers. And EPA asked for GIS data, as well as further information on water withdrawals and water re-emitted into the environment. My favorite is this one:

EPA recommends FERC provide in the EIS readable and comprehensible maps and figures, and clearly describe all potential impacts with the proposed action upon children’s health. For example, maps of schools, day-care facilities, multifamily housing, and hospitals should have different legend colors and be created at scales providing appropriate information, i.e., proximity of sensitive receptors to the navigation and transportation corridors.

FERC shows EPA’s comments as filed 23 April 2014, although they are dated two days earlier. -jsq

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Continue reading Explain why the gas is needed –EPA to FERC →

Sabal Trail citing Stewart County injunction in Brooks County, Georgia

April 22, 2014Brooks County, Economy, Environment, Fracking, Georgia, Law, Stewart CountyBrooks County, Economy, environment, Fracking, Georgia, John S. Quarterman, Kitty Maidens, Law, Mavis L. Harper, property rights, Sabal Trail Transmission, SpectraBusters, Stewart County, Travis H. HarperJohn S. Quarterman

Why would a pipeline company from Houston suffer irreparable harm if it couldn’t go onto the land of somebody in Georgia? A judge in one Georgia county bought Sabal Trail’s eminent domain assertions and now Sabal Trail is citing that to try to get a landowner in Brooks County to let it on the property to survey for its fracked methane pipeline. What about private property rights?

The letter dated 12 April 2014 from Sabal Trail includes this part:

A copy of the Order granting Sabal Trail’s request for injunctive relief, entered on February 21, 2014, is enclosed for your review. As you will see, the Order concluded that:

Sabal Trail has the right, incidental to its power of eminent domain, to enter private property to conduct the Survey Activities.
Delays in conducting the Survey Activities will cause Sabal Trail irreparable harm.
The Survey Activities will not cause substantial harm to the defendant landowners, nor will the surveys disserve the public interest.

Accordingly, the Order prohibits those landowners from preventing or interfering Continue reading Sabal Trail citing Stewart County injunction in Brooks County, Georgia →

Florida and the public have a fee interest in these lands –Florida Sierra Club to FERC

April 21, 2014Environment, FERC, Florida, Law, Waterenvironment, FERC, Florida, Florida Southeast Connection, GIS, Green Swamp, Hillabee Expansion Project, John S. Quarterman, Law, PF14-1, PF14-2, PF14-6, property rights, Sabal Trail Transmission, Sierra Club, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Transco, Water, wetlandsJohn S. Quarterman

Filed with FERC 21 April 2014. -jsq

April 19, 2014

Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street NE, Room 1A
Washington, DC 20426
RE: Sabal Trail Project: Docket No.PF14-1-000
Florida SE Connection Project: Docket No.PF14-2-000
Hillabee Expansion Project: Docket No. PF14-6-000
Continue reading Florida and the public have a fee interest in these lands –Florida Sierra Club to FERC →