Category Archives: Environment

Extend the FERC scoping period and obtain critical information from Sabal Trail Transmission –Greenlaw

Alabama, Dougherty County, Economy, Environment, FERC, Florida, Georgia, Law, Water, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Two of the most organized Riverkeepers in Georgia, plus the Georgia Sierra Club and a group of landowners in Dougherty County, Georgia, have retained environmental law firm Greenlaw to address the Sabal Trail Pipeline. The task is difficult because of lack of information from Sabal Trail and from FERC. Here Steve Caley of Greenlaw spells out what his clients have asked for and how it’s been refused. You can help by also asking FERC or your elected officials to ask FERC to provide the missing information and to extend the Scoping Period. The PDF of the letter includes the attached documents. -jsq

April 7, 2014

Continue reading Extend the FERC scoping period and obtain critical information from Sabal Trail Transmission –Greenlaw →

Sabal Trail will be expected to adhere and honor all Lowndes County Ordinances –Bill E Slaughter, JR to FERC

Agriculture, Colquitt County, Environment, FERC, Georgia, Health, Law, Lowndes County, Trees, Water, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Filed with FERC 11 April 2014. These are apparently the items he referred to Saturday 29 March 2014 at the SpectraBusters panel at VSU. There’s much more that can be done but this is a good step forward. -jsq

Bill E Slaughter, JR, Hahira, GA.
April 10, 2014

To whom it may concern:

If the route for the proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline comes through any part of Lowndes County as Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission and on the behalf of the Commission and Citizens of Lowndes County I would like to address several concerns we have with the Sabal Trail Pipeline Docket # P14-1-000.

  1. All road crossings must obtain a Lowndes County R/W Encroachment Permit for each crossing which will include all information required by the Lowndes County Engineer.
  2. All road crossings shall be perpendicular to the R/W.
  3. All road crossings shall be Continue reading Sabal Trail will be expected to adhere and honor all Lowndes County Ordinances –Bill E Slaughter, JR to FERC →

Spectra and TransCanada competing in LNG export in British Columbia

British Columbia, Economy, Environment, Fracking, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

TransCanada, of the notorious Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, is also competing with Spectra Energy for fracked methane export through an LNG export terminal on the British Columbia coast, and Spectra just got another approval for its “corridor” for not one but two giant pipelines to the Pacific Ocean.

Gordon Jaremko wrote for GPI 4 April 2014, NEB OKs Spectra (Westcoast) Tolls; Major Expansion Planned to Serve Pacific LNG,

Spectra Energy (Westcoast) received approval from the National Energy Board (NEB) for the stable base of its agenda: a 2014-2015 tolls and tariff settlement with customers of its current capacity of 3 Bcf/d.

The deal enables the BC grid to focus on a plan aimed at almost quadrupling its capacity by becoming the principal conduit between northern shale deposits and proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals on the Pacific Coast.

The settlement was not opposed or even questioned Continue reading Spectra and TransCanada competing in LNG export in British Columbia →

FERC gets an earful in Florida

Environment, FERC, Florida, Hazards, Law, Marion County, Safety, , , , , , , , ,

FERC’s John Peconom admitted FERC staff had never recommended denying a pipeline permit, and again admitted that the Commission had only ever denied two. He got an earful from local citizens in Marion County, Florida last night. The last FERC Scoping Meeting is tonight at the Citrus Tower in Clermont, Lake County, Florida.

Bill Thompson wrote for the Ocala StarBanner yesterday, Regulators get an earful over planned gas pipeline,

DUNNELLON — The last time an energy company installed its lines across Frank Atkins’ family’s property, grave markers in a family-owned cemetery were displaced.

The 85-year-old said that after Florida Power Corp. came through in the 1960s, he could not find the burial plot holding his mother, who died giving birth to him.

Now that a natural gas pipeline is slated to pass through his Citrus County land, Atkins said he’s concerned the one-acre cemetery, where more family members are buried, Continue reading FERC gets an earful in Florida →

Pipelines, property values, and insurance

Economy, Environment, Law, , , , , , , , ,

What happens to your property values or homeowners insurance a pipeline company takes your land to gouge a path for its fracked methane or oil? It affects the property values not just of your land, but of your neighbors’, and yours and their property insurance. It also opens the pipeline company and associated businesses to civil lawsuits. And FERC’s assertion that federal law supersedes state and local laws for eminent domain does nothing to stop such lawsuits; many such lawsuits are winning lately. Not even the federal government is immune from pipeline lawsuits.

Stop the Pipeline has a good article, mostly about land near fracking wells: LOSS OF PROPERTY VALUES, DIFFICULTY GETTING MORTGAGES AND HOME INSURANCE,

“Another illustration is the gentleman who has had 63 acres for sale now for several years. He purchased the property as an investment, and now has three pipelines and an above ground valve. He can not give this property away. As he reaches retirement age his retirement has been stolen from him. This is no different than Enron or any other scandal, only it has been made legal thievery. There are two other pieces of property that have been for sale for several years, one of which is a large parcel of about 70 acres and the other is about 10 acres.”

The insurance industry has been studying this issue for years, and wants to steer clear of it. Continue reading Pipelines, property values, and insurance →

Spectra submitted EA to BC for 2 pipelines to LNG export

British Columbia, Canada, Environment, , , , , , , , , , ,

Not one, but up to two pipelines for LNG export in a single “transportation corridor” in British Columbia, for 8.4 billion cubic feet per day in a single right of way, twice as much as earlier Spectra PR about this same project. Does anybody still doubt Spectra CEO Greg Ebel’s assertion that “I would expect we’ll have some involvement in all of” the North American LNG export terminals that Spectra’s pipelines “go right by”? And if Spectra wants to put two pipelines in that right of way in BC, what do they expect to do in the right of way they propose through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida? Sure, they haven’t said they want to do that here, but they didn’t say it about BC at this stage, either. Spectra thanks the aborigines of BC for sharing their objections and plows ahead anyway. We are all Indians to Spectra’s cowboys, but this time there are more of us.

Dave Michaels wrote yesterday for energeticcity.ca (I added the links and images), Gas Pipeline Application

Spectra Energy has handed in an Environmental Assessment Certificate application to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office for its Westcoast Connector Gas Transmission Project.

If approved, the project would ship as much as 4.2 (b) billion cubic feet per day through a pipeline from the Cypress area (southwest of Pink Mountain) to the Ridley Island Terminal, near Prince Rupert. The proposal now undergoes Continue reading Spectra submitted EA to BC for 2 pipelines to LNG export →

TREPO allies with SpectraBusters and pipeline opponents

Columbia County, Corrosion, Economy, Environment, Explosion, Florida, Hazards, Leak, Safety, Water, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Received Monday 25 March 2014 as a PDF. -jsq

Three River Estates Property Owners, Inc.
P.O. Box 148
Fort White, FL 32038-0148
386-497-3320

Position Statement on Sabal Trail/Spectra Energy Methane Pipeline

The Three River Estates Property Owners (TREPO) Board of Directors joins with other homeowners and conservation groups in strongly opposing the placement of the Sabal Trail Methane gas pipeline, anywhere in the Ichetucknee Springs Basin & Ichetucknee Trace & surrounding areas. We specifically oppose Continue reading TREPO allies with SpectraBusters and pipeline opponents →

Less cost, more jobs, and better health with sun, wind, and water power for Florida, or a dirty destructive methane pipeline?

Alabama, Economy, Environment, Florida, Georgia, Safety, Solar, Water, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How about we recognize every place is the worst place for the water-risking land-taking hazardous methane pipeline, and get on with sun, wind, and water to power Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and all the other states?

According to Stanford University researchers, we can do that, and we can do it 100% by 2050, using technology that’s already available. For Florida, that’s 20% rooftop solar PV (half residential and half commercial and governmental), 47.9% solar PV plants, 10% concentrating solar plants, 5% onshore wind, 15% offshore wind, 1% each wave and tide, 0.1% hydroelectric. So that’s 77.9% sun, 20% wind, 1% wave, 1% tide, and 0.1% hydro.

Requiring 0% nuclear, 0% coal, and 0% natural gas. That’s right, Florida doesn’t need methane to shut down coal and nukes. All the Sunshine State needs is sun, wind, and water.

With 355,500 construction jobs and 149,000 operation jobs, $20.1 billion or 3% of Florida’s GDP saved in avoided health costs, 2,210 Floridans not dead from air pollution.

Oh, and 42.9% less energy used over all, plus energy costs to customers cut more than in half.

Who are you going to believe? Researchers at Stanford who have no financial stake in the outcome? Or pipeline companies and utility companies that stand to profit from taking Continue reading Less cost, more jobs, and better health with sun, wind, and water power for Florida, or a dirty destructive methane pipeline? →

Sabal Trail at worst spot –expert in Gainesville Sun

Economy, Environment, Explosion, FERC, Florida, Law, Martin County, Safety, Suwannee County, Water, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Florida newspaper reporters are not buying the pipeline company’s spin. Instead they write about the fragile limestone that holds our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer, damage to which can easily turn a spring into a sinkhole. Wednesday, the Orlando Sentinel about Spectra’s safety record, and today Morgan Watkins wrote for the Gainesville Sun, Expert: Pipeline would cross Santa Fe at the worst spot,

Standing along the bank of the Santa Fe River near the riverside house in southern Suwannee County his family has owned since 1967, Kevin Brown pointed to the spot where a natural gas pipeline is expected to cross underneath the ground.

But Brown’s brother David, a geologist, and other concerned folks hope to persuade the company leading the project to select what they consider a safer crossing point….

The river and the surrounding area is pockmarked with springs and sinkholes. Exposed limestone — a crumbly, fractured rock — Continue reading Sabal Trail at worst spot –expert in Gainesville Sun →

FERC should be promoting solar and wind, not new pipelines –Alabama Sierra Club

Alabama, Economy, Environment, Explosion, FERC, Florida, Fracking, Law, Safety, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Filed with FERC 14 March 2104 by Bob Hastings for Alabama Sierra Club about PF14-6. -jsq

Comments on the proposed Transco Pipeline Hillabee Expansion Project:

The Sierra Club is a national environmental organization promoting the protection of our natural environment and quality of life for all citizens. The Club has more than 1.5 million members and includes chapters in all states. The Alabama Chapter has approximately 3000 members.

The Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club has joined with the Georgia and Florida Sierra Club Chapters to oppose the proposed 650 mile Sabal Trail Pipeline that would carry natural gas extracted through hydraulic fracturing from Pennsylvania and Texas through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Since the purpose of the Hillabee Expansion project is to supply gas to the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, we also oppose the Hillabee Expansion project, and consider it undesirable and not needed.

Williams Partners, Inc., owners of the Transco pipeline, has a poor record of pipeline safety, and has had at least 35 reportable accidents since 2006, including the pipeline rupture and explosion on December 3, 2011, near Linden in Marengo County, Alabama. Fortunately this explosion, which devastated 65 acres of forest land, did not occur in a populated area where loss of life could have been tragic. Williams Partners should focus on upgrading the existing pipeline for improved safety rather than expanding its capacity.

The existing Transco pipeline cuts through Continue reading FERC should be promoting solar and wind, not new pipelines –Alabama Sierra Club →