Category Archives: Canada

Cost to KMI of Palmetto Pipeline Suspension and other pipeline opposition

April 1, 2016Alabama, Canada, Chatham County, Connecticut, Duval County, Economy, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Suwannee CountyAlabama, Chatham County, Chesapeake Energy, Colonial Group, Duval County, Economy, Florida, Georgia, Greenlaw, Jacksonville, Jacksonville Expansion Project, JEP, John S. Quarterman, Kinder Morgan, legislature, Midcontinent Express Pipeline, Moody's, moratorium, Motley Fool, Palmetto Pipeline, Ryan Chandler, Savannah Riverkeeper, SpectraBusters, Steve Caley, Suwannee County, Tonya BonitatibusJohn S. Quarterman

The financial press amusingly tries to spin Kinder Morgan’s suspension yesterday of its Palmetto petroleum products pipeline as a positive. Meanwhile, Sabal Trail still needs stopping even after the historic win in the Georgia legislature, and remember KMI is in bed with Sabal Trail on on the Jacksonville Expansion Project (JEP) from Suwannee County, FL to Jacksonville, FERC Docket No. CP15-144.

Matthew DiLallo, Motley Fool, 31 March 2016, Kinder Morgan Inc. Presses Pause on the Palmetto Pipeline Project: The Palmetto Pipeline is halted due to eminent domain dispute.,

The Palmetto Pipeline project was initially Continue reading Cost to KMI of Palmetto Pipeline Suspension and other pipeline opposition →

The LNG export shell game: FERC, FE, MARAD, or NEB?

January 9, 2016British Columbia, Economy, Ethics, FE, FERC, Florida, Georgia, Law, LNG, MARAD, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Nova Scotia, Oregon, Solar, Suwannee County, Texas, WaterAES, Bahamas, Big Bend, boondoggle, British Columbia, Calypso LNG, Coos Bay, Cove Point LNG, Economy, Elba Island LNG, Ethics, FE, FERC, Florida, FPL, Georgia, greed, Hudson River, Jacksonville Expansion Project, Jaxport, JEP, John S. Quarterman, Kinder Morgan, KMI, Law, LNG, Manhattan, MARAD, Maryland, Mexico, NE, NextEra Energy, Nova Scotia, Ocean Express, Oregon, Oregon LNG export, Port Dolphin, Port Everglades, profit, Rio Grande, Sabal Trail Transmission, shell game, solar, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Strom, Suwannee County, Suwannee River, Texas, WaterJohn S. Quarterman

If you’re a Houston fossil fuel company and you can’t get FERC approval fast enough, try FE, or MARAD! If that doesn’t work, ship it by land through Canada or Mexico! Local property rights, they laugh at those! Rio Grande, Suwannee River, or Hudson River: just minor obstacles to greed! If the people are tired of profit being more important than their land, water, air, or safety, it’s time to stop this fossil fuel shell game.

MARAD

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This pipeline is a soft target that has inadequate security measures –Roger Marietta to FERC

July 24, 2015British Columbia, Dougherty County, Explosion, FERC, Georgia, Hazards, Leak, Safety, TexasBritish Columbia, Dougherty County, explosion, FERC, Georgia, Hazards, John S. Quarterman, leak, Roger Marietta, Safety, soft target, SpectraBusters, target, terrorism, Texas, veteranJohn S. Quarterman

FERC can’t stand the truth? Here’s what Roger Marietta wrote that you still can’t see through FERC’s elibrary, which is still broken eight hours later. Same hazard blogged here eighteen months ago.

Filed with FERC 24 July 2015 as Accession Number: 20150724-5034, “Comment of Roger B. Marietta in Docket(s)/Project(s) CP15-17-000 Submission Date: 7/24/2015”

Roger B. Marietta, Albany, GA.
A developer in our City was told by the Sabal Trail right of way acquisition people that the 36″ pipe would only be buried 3 feet deep in non agricultural areas. My concern and that of other Veterans is what happens to pipelines in Iraq where a man with a shovel can dig up the dirt above a pipeline and then either tap into it or unleash an act of terrorism. With all the ISIS attacks in America recently, this pipeline is a “soft” target that has Continue reading This pipeline is a soft target that has inadequate security measures –Roger Marietta to FERC →

Canadian regulator orders Spectra to clean up its safety practices

July 16, 2015British Columbia, Canada, FERC, Safety, TexasAlberta, British Columbia, Canada, FERC, Houston, John S. Quarterman, management system failures, National Energy Board, NEB, Sabal Trail Transmission, Safety, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, TexasJohn S. Quarterman

Canada’s FERC equivalent had to escalate from specific fines to a blanket clean-up order. Do you still believe Spectra is “a very genuine, safe, law-abiding company”?

Mackenzie Scrimshaw, iPolitics.ca, 15 July 2015, The Drilldown: Spectra Energy faces NEB fines,

Spectra Energy Corp SE.N is feeling the heat from the National Energy Board (NEB). As Reuters reports, the Houston-based company is facing more than $120,000 in fines for committing almost 30 infractions at its Westcoast Energy processing plants in the last 15 months. What’s more, the NEB has requested a correction of these “management system failures.” “The Board expects Westcoast to address safety concerns on a systemic basis, throughout all its gas processing plants and facilities,” reads the NEB’s safety order. “Based on recent violations described below, the Board is not confident safety concerns are being addressed in this manner.”

So that $88,000 fine in January was just the start of this year’s NEB fines to Spectra.

Mike De Souza, Yahoo! Finance, 14 July 2015, Canada regulator orders Spectra Energy to clean up practices, Continue reading Canadian regulator orders Spectra to clean up its safety practices →

Spectra challenging fine for not protecting Western Toad

July 16, 2015British Columbia, EnvironmentBritish Columbia, environment, fine, John S. Quarterman, National Energy Board, NEB, SpectraBusters, Western ToadJohn S. Quarterman

Does this help you believe Spectra’s promises to protect gopher tortoises while invading Georgia with its Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline?

Mike Carter, Alaska Highway News, 17 June 2015, Spectra challenges $28,000 fine for failing to protect Western Toad habitat,

Spectra Energy Transmission faces a $28,000 fine for allegedly failing to protect the habitat of the Western Toad while constructing its Transmission North Expansion project north of Moberly Lake, in the Beryl Prairie area near Butler Ridge Provincial Park.

According to National Energy Board (NEB) spokesperson Darin Barter, the company stands accused of failing to protect the toad’s habitat in accordance with the project’s application documents.

In a June 3 letter to the NEB, Spectra indicated Continue reading Spectra challenging fine for not protecting Western Toad →

Spectra’s Canadian negligence and Fort Nelson leak and flare

July 15, 2015British Columbia, LeakAitken Creek, British Columbia, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, John S. Quarterman, leak, National Energy Board, NEB, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

If Spectra was so negligent the Canadian FERC equivalent had to threaten to shut down a natural gas plant to get cooperation about leaks and flares caused by negligence, and still fined Spectra, why should we believe Spectra’s claims of silence or safety for its invading Albany, Georgia Sabal Trail compressor station?

Canada’s National Energy Board fined Spectra Energy Transmission $88,000 on 22 January 2015 for numerous incidents of negligence, failing to comply with national and internal safety procedures, and

The company failed to take reasonable care to ensure safety hazards had been properly identified.

Get this:

However, despite previous findings of similar non-compliances at other facilities (Aitken Creek Gas Plant and Fort Nelson North Processing Facility), the company failed to take preventative action in advance of the NEB inspection at the Dawson Creek location.

Spectra didn’t even bother to clean up its act when it knew inspectors were coming.

Speaking of Fort Nelson, Continue reading Spectra’s Canadian negligence and Fort Nelson leak and flare →

Canadian natives reject $1 billion offer from fossil fuel company: environment more important

May 10, 2015British Columbia, Economy, Environment, WaterBritish Columbia, Economy, environment, John S. Quarterman, Kinder Morgan, Lax Kw'alaams, Malaysia, Pacific Northwest LNG project, Palmetto Project, Petronas, Prince Rupert, Sabal Trail Transmission, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, WaterJohn S. Quarterman

A fossil fuel company can make a real financial offer when it wants to, not just the pocket change people in the U.S. southeast are being offered for easements for the Sabal Trail or Palmetto pipelines. And no offer is enough to outweigh the environmental damage, was the unanimous vote of a Canadian native group about a competitor of Spectra Energy.

Brent Jang, Globe and Mail, 8 May 2015, Environment dwarfs financial merit in LNG deal for B.C. First Nations,

For the Lax Kw’alaams in British Columbia, Thursday’s decision turned out to be simple — the environmental risks of a massive liquefied natural gas project far outweighed the financial rewards.

In the second stage of three votes, Continue reading Canadian natives reject $1 billion offer from fossil fuel company: environment more important →

LNG export approved and proposed

February 22, 2015British Columbia, FE, FERC, Florida, Georgia, LNG, Louisiana, MARAD, Martin County, Maryland, Nova Scotia, Oregon, TexasAmerican Petroleum Institute, API, British Columbia, Elba Island, FE, FERC, Florida, Georgia, John S. Quarterman, liquid natural gas, LNG, Louisiana, MARAD, Martin County, Maryland, Nova Scotia, Oregon, Quebec, SpectraBusters, TexasJohn S. Quarterman

How big is the LNG export gold rush? Here are maps of dozens of approved, proposed, and potential LNG export terminals, one of them even including Carib’s FE-authorized Martin County LNG export facility that FERC never seems to remember and Sabal Trail never talks about.

Update 2015-02-23: Now with the rest of the maps.

In addition to the approved LNG import and export terminals, there are more on this FERC map of Proposed North American LNG Export Terminals, including ones in Lake Charles (2 and 7), Sabine Pass (6), Plaquemines Parish (8 and 11), and Cameron Parish (13) Louisiana, Lavaca Bay (4) and Sabine Pass (9), Texas, Elba Island (5), Georgia, and Jacksonvile (14), Florida, as well as Coos Bay (1) and Astoria (3), Oregon, plus two in Kitimat (15 and 17) and one on Douglas Island (16), British Columbia. One of those proposed BC LNG export terminals is where Spectra Energy proposes to build not one but two pipelines. And even that ain’t all. Continue reading LNG export approved and proposed →

Spectra stock cut to hold; can CEO Greg Ebel explain 5 Feb 2015?

January 17, 2015British Columbia, Economy, Environment, EPA, Florida, Law, Leak, LNGBritish Columbia, Economy, environment, EPA, Greg Ebel, Hold, John S. Quarterman, Law, leak, LNG, methane, Sabal Trail, Sabal Trail Transmission, SEC, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, stock, Tudor PickeringJohn S. Quarterman

Maybe fossil fuel pipelines aren’t such a lucrative business after all? Funny how this Spectra downgrade comes right after the big announcement about EPA proposed methane rules. Can Spectra Energy CEO Greg Ebel explain this away to investors three weeks from now? How about OPEC driving the price of gas down and energy deals among U.S., China, and Russia tanking the U.S. LNG export market? Ebel’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.

Faye Duncan wrote for Dakota Financial News 16 January 2015, Spectra Energy Corp. Cut to “Hold” at Tudor Pickering, Continue reading Spectra stock cut to hold; can CEO Greg Ebel explain 5 Feb 2015? →

We’ve had enough of these spoiled pipeline brats stealing off of our lands. –Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation

November 10, 2014British Columbia, Canada, Environment, Law, LNG, SafetyJohn S. Quarterman

“Our lands, our final say. No pipeline.” –Freda Huson, Unist’ot’en spokeperson to Enbridge.

They’re in Canada and they never ceded their pre-existing rights to their clan territory. But we’re in the U.S. and we never ceded our rights in fee simple to our own land, water, and air, nor did we approve our taxes going to clean up any sinkholes, leaks, or explosions. I can’t necessarily endorse all their tactics, but I can say beaver is tasty and I’ve found seizing equipment that is illegally trespassing to be useful in the past.

AJ+, YouTube, 5 November 2014, How To Stop An Oil And Gas Pipeline: The Unist’ot’en Camp Resistance,

Over the past four years, Continue reading We’ve had enough of these spoiled pipeline brats stealing off of our lands. –Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation →