Category Archives: FERC

Ask your elected and appointed public officials to oppose Sabal Trail

May 23, 2015FERC, Georgia, Law, PoliticsAustin Scott, Casey Cagle, David Perdue, Eric Cornwell, FERC, GA EPD, GDOT, Georgia, Greenlaw, John S. Quarterman, Johnny Isakson, Judson H. Turner, Law, Nathan Deal, Politics, Russell R. McMurry, Sanford Bishop, SpectraBusters, Ted Turner, Trip AddisonJohn S. Quarterman

After you’ve signed the petition to GA Gov. Nathan Deal, you can call or write him and other state, federal, and local elected and appointed officials and ask them to oppose the unnecessary, destructive, and dangerous Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline. Georgia is the fastest growing solar market in the country, and the Georgia legislature just passed unanimously and the Governor signed a law to facilitate financing solar power. Help the pipeline shrink away from the Georgia sunshine!

State

The great state of Georgia should protect its citizens from this invader from Texas that threatens our water, our land, and our way of life.

Governor

Continue reading →

FERC blocks people from attending and recording open meeting

May 14, 2015FERC, LawBeyond Extreme Energy, Cove Point, FERC, John S. Quarterman, Law, recording, rubberstamp, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

FERC doesn’t follow its own rules requiring public benefits for pipelines, so it’s not surprising it doesn’t follow its own rules on public meetings. This time FERC is well into lawsuit territory.

Anne Meador and John Zangas, DC Media Group, 14 May 2015, Dozens Denied Access to FERC Public Meeting,

Federal Protective Services took extraordinary measures to prevent disruption of the Commission meeting by planned protests, barring access to about 30 members of the public. FPS also banned the use of recording devices, brushing aside FERC’s own rule expressly permitting it. Two people were escorted out of the meeting room, five detained and three arrested.

That’s arrested for exercising their First Amendment “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances”, not to mention Continue reading FERC blocks people from attending and recording open meeting →

FERC running scared of protesters moves meeting date up to 14 May 2015

May 9, 2015FERCBeyond Extreme Energy, Congress, FERC, John S. Quarterman, protest, rubberstamp, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

FERC can’t face the heat! But the rubberstamp machine can’t hide, either. It’s a safe bet protesters will be there at the new date.

Alex Guillén, Politico, 8 May 2015, FERC moves May meeting to avoid protestors,

ATTENTION FERC WORLD — MAY MEETING MOVED UP TO AVOID PROTESTS: FERC has moved up its monthly May meeting at the recommendation of federal law enforcement in order to avoid planned large-scale protests. The commissioner’s regularly scheduled monthly public meeting had been slated to take place on May 21, but because of plans for protest actions involving potentially hundreds of people, FERC has moved up the meeting to next Thursday, May 14. The decision was made after a recommendation from the Federal Protective Service “to better ensure the safety of its staff and the public during the protests planned for May 21 at FERC headquarters,” FERC spokesman Craig Cano wrote in an email.

About the protests: An umbrella group called Beyond Extreme Energy that charges FERC is Continue reading FERC running scared of protesters moves meeting date up to 14 May 2015 →

Why Georgia Doesn’t Need the Palmetto Pipeline –Poets Love Birds

May 4, 2015Economy, Environment, FERC, Georgia, WaterAltamaha River, Chattahoochee River, Economy, environment, FERC, Flint River, Florida Aquifer, Georgia, greed, John S. Quarterman, karst, Kinder Morgan, limestone, Ogeechee River, Palmetto Pipeline, Sabal Trail Transmission, Santa Fe River, Satilla River, Savannah River, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, St. Mary's River, Suwannee River, Water, Withlacoochee RiverJohn S. Quarterman

The Suwannee River faces invasion by both Kinder Morgan’s Palmetto petroleum products pipeline and Spectra Energy’s Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline. Plus the Savannah, Ogeechee, Altamaha, Satilla, and St. Mary’s River are threatened by the Palmetto Project, Chattahoochee, Flint, Withlacoochee, and Santa Fe Rivers are threatened by Sabal Trail, plus most both projects is above the fragile Floridan Aquifer. All for no known local benefit; just to profit corporate greed.

Curtis and Norma Beaird, Poets Love Birds, 30 April 2015, Why Georgia Doesn’t Need the Palmetto Pipeline: Our Filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),

We are writing this article because we are very concerned about the proposed Palmetto Pipeline to be built in the state of Georgia. Kinder Morgan plans to build 360-mile pipeline that will run from Belton, South Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida. According to the Savannah Riverkeeper, 218 miles of the pipeline will be in Georgia and 142 miles of the pipeline will be built in South Carolina. This pipeline would move refined petroleum products, to include denatured fuel ethanol. …
According to Push Back the Pipeline:

In the continental U.S., there are only 42 free-flowing rivers greater than 124 miles in length. Georgia contains five of these rivers, three of which are in the path of the proposed pipeline, Altamaha, Ogeechee, and Satilla Rivers. The Okefenokee Swamp is also the headwaters of the St. Marys and the Suwanee River, which flows to the Gulf of Mexico.

Georgia also contains most of the free-flowing 205-mile Alapaha River, which fortunately isn’t currently the target of any pipeline. However, Spectra Energy proposes to gouge its Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline under the 115-mile Withlacoochee River in Georgia. And Sabal Trail would cross the Suwannee River in Florida, so the Suwannee is a target of both pipelines: Palmetto in Georgia, and Sabal Trail in Florida.

Here’s Curtis Beaird’s FERC filing, which notes that Kinder Morgan has not proven any need Continue reading Why Georgia Doesn’t Need the Palmetto Pipeline –Poets Love Birds →

Likely loss of drilling fluid in limestone under rivers –FL DEP to FERC

April 2, 2015Alachua County, Brooks County, Columbia County, Environment, FERC, Florida, Georgia, Gilchrist County, Hamilton County, Hazards, Leak, Lowndes County, Suwannee County, Waterbedrock, cave, drilling, fluid, HDD, horizontal direcitgonal drilling, John S. Quarterman, karst, LiDAR, limestone, Santa Fe River, sinkhole, SpectraBusters, Suwannee River, Withlacoochee RiverJohn S. Quarterman

Apparently the Florida Department of Environmental Protection complained to FERC that any drilling under our blackwater rivers would leak contaminants into the karst limestone that contains our drinking water Floridan Aquifer:

Update 2015-04-03: Additions now that FERC eLibrary is working, including third point below.

Sabal Trail underestimated karst features—additional, more recent data available from agencies including LiDAR, potentiometric surface maps, and cave maps.
Highest agency concern is associated with likely loss of drilling fluid associated with HDDs in limestone bedrock including at the Suwannee, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee rivers.
Drilling fluid loss would have an environmental impact; risk and magnitude of impact on groundwater, wells and springs should be based on updated, site-specific information.

Filed with FERC 1 April 2015 as Continue reading Likely loss of drilling fluid in limestone under rivers –FL DEP to FERC →

Oil (Palmetto) vs. gas (Sabal Trail) pipelines at FERC

March 26, 2015FERC, Georgia, Law, PHMSAEIA, eminent domain, FERC, Georgia, John S. Quarterman, Law, OR15-13, PHMSA, price, regulation, shipping, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

FERC’s role for oil pipelines is different than for natural gas pipelines. FERC doesn’t actively promote petroleum products pipelines through federal eminent domain like it does for fracked methane; instead it leaves oil pipeline eminent domain to the states, which for Georgia seems to mostly mean the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT).

FERC’s website says about Regulating Oil Pipelines:

The Commission’s responsibilities include:

Regulation of rates and practices of oil pipeline companies engaged in interstate transportation;
Establishment of equal service conditions to provide shippers with equal access to pipeline transportation; and
Establishment of reasonable rates for transporting petroleum and petroleum products by pipeline.

So Kinder Morgan’s Palmetto petroleum products Project does fall under FERC, but not the same way as for Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline.

These FERC oil roles help explain why Continue reading Oil (Palmetto) vs. gas (Sabal Trail) pipelines at FERC →

Yes, Palmetto Pipe Line falls under FERC

March 21, 2015FERC, LawFERC, Florida, Georgia, John S. Quarterman, Kinder Morgan, Law, Palmetto Pipeline, Push Back the Pipeline, South Carolina, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

There’s never been any doubt that Kinder Morgan’s Palmetto Project to gouge through South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to Jacksonville is an interstate pipeline and therefore under the jurisdiction of FERC. It does aready have one FERC docket. ~~The only reason it doesn’t have a pre-filing or regular filing FERC docket is it just hasn’t gotten that far in the FERC process yet.~~

Update 2015-03-26: Actually, FERC doesn’t have nearly as much authority over oil pipelines.

FERC’s own docket OR15-13, was Continue reading Yes, Palmetto Pipe Line falls under FERC →

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 →

FERC trusts pipeline companies to self-regulate: result…

March 3, 2015Environment, FERC, Hazards, History, Law, Safety, Waterenvironment, Exxon Valdez, FERC, Hazards, History, Iroquois Gas Transmission System L.P., Iroquois Pipeline Operating Company, John S. Quarterman, Law, Sabal Trail Transmission, Safety, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, streams, U.S. Department of Justice, Water, wetlandsJohn S. Quarterman

In one case:

“In the largest penalty in an environmental case since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Connecticut-based Iroquois Pipeline Operating Company will pay $22 million in criminal and civil fines for violating federal environmental and safety laws, the United States announced today [23 May 1996].
The company and four of its high-level officers and supervisors pleaded guilty to numerous criminal violations of the Clean Water Act including failure to clean up or restore damage to nearly 200 streams and wetlands as a result of rushing to meet construction deadlines.”

That’s even larger than the U.S. EPA fine of $15 million in 1989 against Spectra’s Texas Eastern Pipeline for spilling PCBs at 89 sites, although not when you add in the $18.6 million fine by Pennsylvania plus $200 million for cleanup.

Yet Iroquois Gas Transmission System L.P. touts Continue reading FERC trusts pipeline companies to self-regulate: result… →

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 →