Category Archives: Alabama

Sabal Trail repeatedly sent letters to landowners claiming Georgia eminent domain authority –SpectraBusters to judge

April 17, 2015Brooks County, Colquitt County, Dougherty County, Georgia, Law, Lee County, Lowndes County, Stewart CountyAlton Paul Burns, Bell, Brooks County, Case number 14CV208RS, Colquitt County, criminal trespass, Dougherty County, eminent domain, Georgia, John S. Quarterman, Judge Rucker Smith, Law, Lee County, Leesburg, Lowndes County, Mitchell County, O.C.G.A. 22-3-88, SpectraBusters, Stewart County, trespassJohn S. Quarterman

SpectraBusters sent examples of Sabal Trail’s many threats of eminent domain, in this letter to Leesburg for the ongoing eminent domain and criminal trespass trial.

Re: Case number 14CV208RS
Judge Rucker Smith

To: Cindy Clark
Civil Deputy Clerk
County Courthouse
100 Leslie Highway
Leesburg, Georgia 31763

If it please the court,

SpectraBusters, Inc. is a Georgia nonprofit corporation with board members and other participants in all three states directly affected by the Sabal Trail proposed pipeline: Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. The SpectraBusters board voted Monday March 30th 2015 to send this letter to the court to express our concerns about Sabal Trail’s attempts to claim Georgia eminent domain long before it tried to claim customers in Georgia, as well as possible ill effects throughout the pipeline route, especially in Georgia, if the judge were to rule in this case for application of Georgia eminent domain. Even with Sabal Trail’s claimed agreement with the Metropolitan Gas Authority of Georgia (MGAG), Sabal Trail is still “a long way” Continue reading Sabal Trail repeatedly sent letters to landowners claiming Georgia eminent domain authority –SpectraBusters to judge →

Grasping at semicolons: Sabal Trail fail in Leesburg

March 25, 2015Georgia, Law, Lee Countyeminent domain, evidentiary, fraud, Georgia, hearing, John S. Quarterman, jury, Law, Lee County, Mitchell County, propaganda, puppeteer, Sabal Trail Transmission, Spectra Energy, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

Semicolons and disjunctive ands vs. propaganda, subterfuge, and fraud yesterday in Leesburg, GA, and evidentiary briefs will be received by the judge over the next 20 days.

After patiently listening to Spectra attorneys detail how a 1920s version of Georgia pipeline eminent domain law had a semicolon that they claimed separated “in the State of Georgia” from their pipeline, Judge Smith later remarked that the legislature passing a bill that removed the semicolon could be used to infer that they intended to remove the semicolon. Sabal Trail also tried to argue that the “and” in the same sentence was a disjunctive that similarly separated. The judge seemed more interested in the basic question: does Sabal Trail provide gas to customers within the State of Georgia?

The landowners’ attorney made it even more interesting, referring to Continue reading Grasping at semicolons: Sabal Trail fail in Leesburg →

Return to Leesburg, GA for Sabal Trail legal hearing against landowners

March 22, 2015Georgia, History, Law, Lee CountyAlton Paul Burns, Bell, eminent domain, Georgia, History, John S. Quarterman, Law, Lee County, Mitchell County, SpectraBusters, Superior Court, Thomas CountyJohn S. Quarterman

Last summer Sabal Trail limped away from Leesburg, Georgia without any ruling about eminent domain. They’re heading their pipeline posse back to town this Tuesday, 24 March 2015, for an 11:30 AM hearing on a motion of summary judgment against the same landowners, the Bells. This is an opportunity for pipeline opponents to show up at the hearing or write a letter of support for the Bells. Send your letter here and we’ll probably also publish it.

If you can’t come in person, for letters here is contact information Continue reading Return to Leesburg, GA for Sabal Trail legal hearing against landowners →

If eminent domain is hardship to Mineral Interest Owners, it’s hardship to everyone else

March 5, 2015Alabama, Chambers County, FERC, Florida, Georgia, History, Law, Texas, WaterAlabama, caverns, Chambers County, drinking water, eminent domain, FERC, Florida, Floridan Aquifer, gas, Georgia, History, John S. Quarterman, Law, minerals, oil, salt, SpectraBusters, springs, Texas, Turtle Bay, Turtle Bayou, WaterJohn S. Quarterman

If affected salt and other minerals in subsurface caverns are enough to deny a FERC permit, drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer should be, too. The “first formal protest of Texas colonists against Mexican tyranny” was signed at Turtle Bayou, Chambers County, Texas, where an Alabama Company four years ago wanted to store natural gas underground with an associated pipeline that FERC denied. Communities and local governments throughout the Floridan Aquifer have signed protests against fossil fuel company tyranny in the form of the unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.

FERC denied that permit application for Turtle Bayou Gas Storage Company in 2011; one of only two pipeline applications that FERC’s John Peconom could find that FERC ever denied. The applicant appealed. FERC replied in Dockets CP10-481-002 and CP10-481-000, ORDER DENYING REQUEST FOR REHEARING OR RECONSIDERATION (Issued April 11, 2012), Continue reading If eminent domain is hardship to Mineral Interest Owners, it’s hardship to everyone else →

Sabal Trail contractor yards

March 2, 2015Alabama, Economy, Environment, Florida, Georgia, WaterAlabama, contractor yards, Economy, environment, Florida, Georgia, John S. Quarterman, Sabal Trail Transmission, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, WaterJohn S. Quarterman

It’s not just the pipeline or the compressor stations: Sabal Trail has filed maps of contractor yards, some of them miles away from the pipeline path, at least one next to an airport (Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia).

Filed with FERC as Accession Number: 20150220-5131, “Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC submits supplemental information on adopted alternatives and information on other reroutes and modifications under CP15-17.”, RR1_Vol-II-A_FIGURE-1.1-2_YARDS.PDF and RR1_Vol-II-A_FIGURE-1.1-3_YARDS.PDF. Continue reading Sabal Trail contractor yards →

FERC tells Sabal Trail to fix 17 pages of errors

March 2, 2015Alabama, Economy, FERC, Florida, Georgia, Hazards, Law, Safety, WaterAlabama, Economy, FERC, Florida, Georgia, Hazards, John Peconom, John S. Quarterman, karst, Law, Sabal Trail Transmission, Safety, Santa Fe River, sinkhole, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Suwannee River, Water, Withlacoochee RiverJohn S. Quarterman

John Peconom of FERC has told Sabal Trail to provide copious detailed information by 27 March 2015, including numerous items about karst limestone, such as:

Utilize publicly available LiDAR data and cave information to further characterize karst areas crossed by the Project facilities.

and

Provide summary assessments of the Direct Pipe, open cut, aerial, and intersect crossing methods as alternatives to the proposed HDD crossings of the Withlacoochee River in Brooks and Lowndes Counties, Georgia and the Suwannee River, Santa Fe River, and Withlacoochee Rivers in Florida. Also, summarize any modified HDD techniques/methods considered at these specific crossings.

Is this just FERC helping one of its funding organizations (FERC is 100% funded by the industries it “regulates”)? Or maybe even FERC is getting tired of Sabal Trail?

Filed with FERC 27 February 2015 as Accession Number: 20150227-3071, “Letter requesting Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC to file within 30 days the Environmental Information Request for the Sabal Trail Project under CP15-17.” Continue reading FERC tells Sabal Trail to fix 17 pages of errors →

Would you buy a used car from Sabal Trail?

February 5, 2015Alabama, Colquitt County, Compressor, Corrosion, Dougherty County, Economy, Environment, Explosion, Florida, Georgia, Hazard, Hazards, History, Leak, SafetyAndrea Grover, Brian Fahrenthold, corrosion, credibility, eminent domain, explosion, Hazards, History, insurance, John S. Quarterman, leak, property values, public record, Sabal Trail Transmission, Safety, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Susan WallerJohn S. Quarterman

Why should we accept any risk from a pipeline company that has repeatedly claimed not to be familiar with the public record of its long list of corrosion, leaks, and explosions? A pipeline company that has claimed land values wouldn’t be affected? That it’s “hard to believe” its own law firm sent threats of eminent domain to landowners, despite copies of those letters being sent to newspapers and FERC? That Georgia counties need its gas, after those same counties had already passed resolutions wanting Sabal Trail’s pipeline out of their county and state? A pipeline company that claims the Sunshine State needs its gas when its own figures show half the acreage could produce just as much solar power? Why should anybody in Albama, Georgia, or Florida accept any risk from that company from Houston, Texas?

Sabal Trail claimed theirs is a safe company and leaks and explosions seldom happen, until confronted on-camera with a list of incidents. Continue reading Would you buy a used car from Sabal Trail? →

What Sabal Trail wants to do to our rivers

February 5, 2015Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hazard, Hazards, History, Noise, Safety, Wateraquifer, Black Warrior River, Cahaba River, Chattahoochee River, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Coosa River, Dirty Dozen, drilling, Flint River, Flint Riverkeeper, Floridan Aquifer, frac-out, Georgia Water Coalition, Hazards, HDD, Horizontal Directional Drilling, John S. Quarterman, Ochlockonee River, Our Santa Fe River, Sabal Trail Transmission, Santa Fe River, sinkhole, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Suwannee River, Tallapoosa River, Tombigbee River, Withlacoochee River, WWALS, WWALS Watershed CoalitionJohn S. Quarterman

After a long string of safety incidents and later-contradicted assertions in the media, would you trust Sabal Trail to drill under your rivers in your aquifers and near your farms, schools, homes, and springs?

Here’s stage two of Sabal Trail’s three-stage horizontal directional drilling (HDD) method, according to its document How We Cross Rivers and Streams,

The second stage involves enlarging the pilot hole to a diameter that will accommodate the pipeline. The enlargement process involves the use of hydraulic cutting with drill bits and jet nozzles and hydraulic motors Continue reading What Sabal Trail wants to do to our rivers →

New England doesn’t need more gas pipelines: stockpile instead

January 21, 2015Alabama, Florida, Georgia, MassachusettsAlabama, Florida, FPL, Georgia, ISO New England, ISO-NE, John S. Quarterman, LNG export, Massachusetts, New England, price, rate, Sabal Trail Transmission, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, stockpileJohn S. Quarterman

Still more evidence that new natural gas pipelines are an unneeded boondoggle.

Kathryn R. Eiseman, Commonwealth Magazine, 20 January 2015, New gas pipelines can be avoided: Back-up fuel incentives are the way to go,

LAST WINTER’S NATURAL gas price spikes, and resultant electric rate hikes, continue to be used to justify the push for massive expansion of gas infrastructure. Yet a successful program to incentivize New England’s power generators to contract for back-up fuel for this winter undermines the argument for more pipelines. This winter’s lower wholesale gas and electric prices indicate that the rate hikes themselves could have been avoided had such measures been more fully implemented for the 2013-2014 winter.

Measures like contracting to buy gas from peak load plants that sometimes sat idle last winter. And measures like storing gas when it’s cheap to use in the winter.

In fact, ISO-NE intentionally excluded LNG storage incentives from last winter’s winter reliability program, telling the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that gas-market-related solutions “would lower gas prices and send the wrong signal about the relative scarcity of natural gas. These lower prices would also be reflected in the electricity market.” In other words, allowing prices to rise would help convince the public Continue reading New England doesn’t need more gas pipelines: stockpile instead →

Sabal Trail is an insurgent invader; pipeline opponents are environmental patriots

January 9, 2015Alabama, Environment, Florida, Georgia, History, Law, Safety, WaterAlabama, Education, eminent domain, environment, Florida, FPL, Georgia, Government, History, insurgent, John S. Quarterman, Law, patriot, redcoat, Sabal Trail Transmission, Safety, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Transco, Water, Williams CompanyJohn S. Quarterman

The pipeline companies are invading insurgents, acting against the stated directions of local elected governments. Pipeline opponents, fighting for their land, water, air, safety, and children, are patriots.

Merriam Webster defines insurgent as:

a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government

~~Five~~ Six counties and two cities in Georgia and Florida have so far passed resolutions against the Sabal Trail pipeline, and four state representatives have complained to FERC about it: here’s a list. That’s in addition to the other state and federal agencies that have complained to FERC. And in addition to the hundreds of individuals who have spoken at Sabal Trail’s Open Houses and FERC’s Scoping Meetings, overwhelmingly opposing the pipeline. And in addition to the numerous landowner, environmental, and political organizations that have passed resolutions, filed with FERC, and in many cases intervened with FERC against Sabal Trail’s application for a permit.

So if you see the people willing to put their time, money, and in many cases their freedom on the line; when you see the media call them insurgents, you know it’s a lie. Like Americans against invading redcoats, pipeline opponents are patriots.

One of many lies deliberately promoted by the fossil fuel industry. Eamon Javers wrote for CNBC 8 November 2011 Oil Executive: Military-Style ‘Psy Ops’ Experience Applied, Continue reading Sabal Trail is an insurgent invader; pipeline opponents are environmental patriots →