After Beth Gordon
asked a contractor for a list of affected landowners,
she tried
asking Andrea Grover of Spectra Energy:
No landowner list for you –Andrea Grover
Video by Beth Gordon for SpectraBusters,
9 December 2013, Levy County, Florida
Beth notes: Continue reading No landowner list for you –Andrea Grover
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Valdosta, December 9, 2013—What’s been done and what can be done to stop a
natural gas pipeline proposed to gash through here for the profit of companies far away. It’s not just a federal issue: there are things every state and local government and citizen can do to prevent this safety and property value hazard.
When:
7 PM to 9 PM
Thursday, December 12th 2013
Where:
Lowndes County Offices
Multi-Purpose Room
327 N. Ashley Street, 2nd floor
Valdosta, GA 31601
Phone: (229) 671-2442
Why: Spectra Energy
proposes
a hundred-foot-wide gash through our lands for their huge
36 inch Sabal Trail gas pipeline from Alabama through
Georgia to feed Florida Power and Light (FPL) for no benefit
to local citizens. A one-time payment is nowhere near
adequate for permanent destruction and hazards when FPL and
Spectra would profit forever.
The Lowndes County Commission
promised to ask Spectra Energy questions citizens submitted.
They failed.
They meet again 5:30 PM tonight at their Regular Session:
327 North Ashley Street, 2nd Floor
Valdosta, GA 31601
229-671-2442
If you want to speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard you need to
turn in
this form
before the meeting starts.
They usually have copies at the door of the Commission Chambers, but
if there’s a big crowd they might run out, so you can print your own
beforehand.
There will be protesters out front starting at 4:30 PM.
Here’s a roundup of local blog, TV, and newspaper coverage: Continue reading Spectra sales and Lowndes County Commission tonight
The fossil fuel industry has hijacked a perfectly good word to cover their destructions.
Wendy Lynn Lee
wrote for The Wrench, 5 December 2013,
CADAVER COSMETICS: THE AESTHETICS OF “SUSTAINABILITY”,
The following is an excerpt from a forthcoming article, “Sustainable Wasteland,” scheduled to be published in 2014—but more importantly, it inaugurates a new series devoted to dismantling the concept of “sustainability” as the greenwashing masquerade of an industry that would convince us that “reclamation” means planting grass and laying down straw where 100 year old trees used to stand, that painting natural gas pipeline forest green is forest restoration. I have coined the phrase cadaver cosmetics to signal that what underlay the”landscape architecture” of the fracking industry’s notion of “sustainability” is nothing but powder on the face of a corpse that was once an ecosystem.
Some refer to the effort to conceal a bad deal as if it were a good one as “lipstick on a pig.” But in that case, we’re at least invited to imagine Continue reading Reclamation means planting grass and laying down straw where 100 year old trees used to stand
Commissioner Tony Clark’s LNG export comments are the pullquote in the U.S. House Committee’s own writeup. His testimony says a surplus of fracked gas in the U.S. is driving both LNG exports and new pipelines. Not customer demand in Florida: producer demand for new markets. Do we want a pipeline through our lands to profit fat cats in Houston?
Given Clark’s background as a public service commissioner in fracking North Dakota, he seems likely to be a fracking, LNG export, and gas pipeline advocate. New FERC Acting Chair Cheryl A. LaFleur’s testimony set the stage for Clark’s remarks:
FERC Commissioner Phillip D. Moeller’s testimony included this Orwellian remark:Increased availability of domestic natural gas and its growing use in power generation also has implications for natural gas infrastructure, which Commissioner Clark will touch on in his testimony.
Over the last 22 months, the Commission has undertaken significant efforts to address the growing convergence of the natural gas and electric industries through seven technical conferences and regular updates. In November the Commission issued its final rule relating to communications regarding sensitive system information in an effort to open communication channels between interstate natural gas pipelines and operators of wholesale electric markets.
So we should pave the way for natural gas plowing through our property by making communications about it federally sensitive?
Written Testimony of Commissioner Tony Clark
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Before the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Energy and Power
United States House of Representatives
Hearing on
Evaluating the Role of FERC in a Changing Energy Landscape
December 5, 2013
The large amount of natural gas in the U.S. is also creating an impetus for something that was nearly unimaginable ten or fifteen year ago, LNG export, as opposed to import terminals. This is an area of significant workload increase for the Commission.
Presently, the FERC has thirteen proposed LNG export terminals and three LNG import terminals in some phase of the permitting process. As you would expect, the reviews that entail safely siting large multi-billion dollar energy projects such as these are extensive.
Note he doesn’t say anything about deciding whether to site LNG export terminals, just doing it “safely”. So this FERC Commissioner seems in favor of what another House subcommittee is also pushing: LNG exports.
But what about pipelines? Those are also driven by fossil fuel company fracked shale gas gluts, not by customer demand:
As you might expect, the shale revolution in both liquids and natural gas production is having a tremendous impact on the work of the FERC. We see this Continue reading FERC Commissioner pushes LNG exports to House Subcommitee
The third link: Sabal Trail plans to get its gas from
Williams Transco’s
Hillabee Expansion Project in Alabama,
FERC Docket #PF14-6.
Here’s an excerpt from the Cover letter, Request for Pre-Filing Review, 4 November 2013.
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC
2800 Post Oak Boulevard (77056)
P.O. Box 1396
Houston, Texas 77251-1396
713/215-2000November 4, 2013
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20426
Attention: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary Reference: Request for Pre-Filing Review
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC
Hillabee Expansion Project
Docket No. PF14-Ladies and Gentlemen:
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC (“Transco”) respectfully requests that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“Commission”) Staff initiate a pre-filing review of Transco’s proposed Hillabee Expansion Project (sometimes referred to herein as the “Project”). The Project is an expansion of Transco’s existing natural gas transmission system in Alabama that will enable Transco to provide an approximate 1,131,730 dekatherms per day (“dt/day”) of incremental transportation capacity to be constructed in three phases. The capacity created by the Project will be leased to Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC (“Sabal Trail”). The initial phase of the Hillabee Expansion Project is targeted to be placed in service May 1, 2017.
Project Overview: Continue reading Williams Transco Hillabee Expansion Project PF14-6 to connect to Sabal Trail
It sure looks like all Cowboys and Indians as far as fossil fuel
companies are concerned, and the only Cowboys are the fossil fuel executives
and investors.
First Nations just won a temporary victory in New Brunswick, Canada
against fracking company
SWN,
a wholly owned subsidiary of
Southwestern Energy of Houston, Texas.
Landowners and other pipeline opponents in the U.S. southeast
maybe can stop a methane pipeline that could well connect all the
way up to those same contested shale fields in New Brunswick.
APTN national news wrote yesterday, SWN ending exploration work in NB, will be back in 2015: Elsipogtog War Chief Levi,
ELSIPGOTG FIRST NATION, NB—A Houston-based energy company that has faced ferocious resistance from a Mi’kmaq-led coalition is ending its shale gas exploration work for the year, says Elsipogtog War Chief John Levi.
Levi said Friday that the RCMP informed him that SWN Resources Canada is ending its exploration work, but will return in 2015.
SWN is not Spectra Energy. SWN fracks for gas; Spectra mostly transports it in pipelines. But look at Spectra’s own map, Our Portfolio of Assets: Continue reading New Brunswick natives win against fracking company
This newspaper didn’t mention Suwannee County, Florida may be
getting a compressor station.
And remember, the proposed pipeline path crosses
the Withlacoochee River a second time just before crossing the Suwannee River
to enter Suwannee County.
All of the Open Houses required by FERC, are listed on the calendar. They resume Monday evening in Lumpkin, GA and Williston, FL. Before that, Monday morning, the Lowndes County Commission, Georgia, is having Spectra speak at their 8:30 AM Monday 9 December Work Session, to answer questions submitted in advance by the public.
Suwannee Democrat, 30 November 2013, Public invited to proposed gas pipeline open house events,
Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC will be hosting two open house meetings for the interested public to learn more about the underground natural gas pipeline project that is proposed to come through Suwannee County.
The public is invited to attend the meetings on Tuesday, Dec. 3, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Coliseum (11th Street/Fairgrounds) in Live Oak and on Wednesday, Dec. 4, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at Branford High School (405 S Reynolds St., Branford).
They also included “As previously reported by the Suwannee Democrat”:
Natural gas pipeline to extend 40 miles in Suwannee County
500 landowners could be affected
By Bryant Thigpen
bryant.thigpen@gaflnews.com
Sabal Trail Transmission has announced their intent to construct a natural gas pipeline which will run approximately 40 miles in Suwannee County, according to Andrea Grover, spokesperson for Sabal Trail Transmission. Plans are underway to construct a natural gas pipeline from North Alabama to Central Florida and could be constructed as early as Summer 2016.
If the proposed map remains unchanged, the pipeline is about 470 miles long and will make its way through four Alabama counties, nine Georgia counties and 12 Florida counties, including Suwannee and surrounding Madison and Hamilton counties.
The pipeline will extend for approximately 40 miles in Suwannee County and approximately 500 landowners will be affected by this project. About 100 landowners in Hamilton County will be affected by this project as well.
“The routing is very much not set,” Grover said.
According to Grover, the current proposed route could change, but it will stay within the 600 feet corridor. Grover said the pipeline will run along existing rights-of-way for about 80 percent of the route. When construction begins, the pipeline’s projection path will be narrowed down to a 50 feet corridor.
Really? In Lowndes County, Georgia, at least, “run along” means side-by-side but not on the same easement, so many landowners get a second pipeline gash through their property if we let this happen. And why did Sabal Trail file with FERC all those detailed alternative maps including one for a “Hildreth Compressor Station, Suwannee County, Florida”?
Hildreth Compressor Station, Suwannee County, Florida, in Alternatives, by Sabal Trail Transmission,
for FERC Docket No. PF14-1-000, 15 November 2013, converted by SpectraBusters
SABAL TRAIL PROJECT, DRAFT RESOURCE REPORT 10, Alternatives, FERC Docket No. PF14-1-000, Initial Pre-Filing Draft, November 2013
-jsq
There’s a tiny amount of news coverage about the
Open Houses
required by
FERC,
all of which are listed on the
calendar.
The resume Monday evening in Lumpkin, GA and Williston, FL.
Before that, Monday morning, the Lowndes County Commission, Georgia,
is having
Spectra speak at their 8:30 AM Monday 9 December Work Session,
to answer questions submitted in advance by the public.
Morgan Watkins wrote for Gainesville.com Wednesday, Public gets chance Thursday to learn more about proposed pipeline,
Sabal Trail Transmission, the company building a 474-mile natural-gas pipeline from Alabama into Florida, has begun a round of open houses for the public and will host one Thursday evening for Alachua and Gilchrist counties.
The open house will run from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Bell High School, located at 930 S. Main St. in Bell, and provide an opportunity for people in the community to learn more about the pipeline that eventually will run through the area.
Or won’t run through, if enough people oppose it. Continue reading Open Houses in Florida, and Spectra before the Lowndes County Commission in Georgia
Filed with FERC 25 November 2013:
henry g. jowers, valdosta ga., GA.
I am very opposed to the proposed 36 in. gas line being placed on my land.It will be too close to my;; work shop and home. I FEAR for my family’s safety.I think this gas line will destory; the value of my home and land.
Henry g. Jowers
How to comment with FERC.