Category Archives: Jefferson County

Fracking and pipeline bans start at the local level

Local ordinances lead to state laws banning fracking and pipelines. And don’t forget Sabal Trail has to get permits from the Georgia Department of Transportation for road crossings and an air quality permit from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division for the Albany compressor station, or no pipeline. There is plenty local, state, and federal elected officials can do to stop this invading fracked methane destruction and hazard. Rev. Ezekiel Holly called on local officials to act. Here are some ways how.

How about a county ordinance rooted in the Comprehensive Plan? A local ordinance was used by Jefferson County, Florida to keep Nestle out of the same Floridan Aquifer. Local ordinances have been used in Pennsylvania to stop pipelines, and upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Local ordinances were used across New York State to ban fracking, and upheld by the state Court of Appeals, until the state government finally took up the cause and banned fracking statewide.

Now New York state residents are saying Continue reading Fracking and pipeline bans start at the local level

A methane pipeline company sues a newspaper about publishing open records

How desperate is the pipeline industry getting? One has gone so far as to demand a court grant it veto power over public open records.

Kala Kachmar, Montgomery Advertiser, 17 September 2014, Alagasco sues Advertiser to stop use of pipe safety plan,

Alabama Gas Corporation has taken legal action to attempt to stop the Montgomery Advertiser from publishing or writing about the company’s document that outlines a plan to ensure the safety of gas pipes.

The document, Alagasco’s Distribution Integrity Management Plan (DIMP), was obtained in June through a public records request to the Alabama Public Service Commission (PSC), which oversees the state’s utilities.

All gas companies are required by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to file a plan that assures pipeline safety and integrity with the state entity that oversees utility companies.

The regulation requires Continue reading A methane pipeline company sues a newspaper about publishing open records

State and local permitting for Sabal Trail pipeline

The Florida Public Service Commission has a special say in the Southeast Market Pipelines Project because the Florida Southeast Connection (FSC) leg of this pipeline is completely inside Florida and completely owned by FPL, a Florida regulated electric utility. And Florida has a say because the entire excuse for the three-part Transco -> Sabal Trail -> FSC project is that supposedly Florida needs the power (it doesn’t, but that’s the excuse). FPL is getting so desperate for public acceptance of this boondoggle they pressed their own CEO, Eric Silagy, into attempting to rebut Our Santa Fe River’s latest entry in the op-ed debate.

Sabal Trail and FERC would like everyone to believe state regulators have no say, but that’s just not true. It’s not even clear GA PSC has no say, considering that Continue reading State and local permitting for Sabal Trail pipeline

Jefferson County, FL stopped Nestle; counties can stop Sabal Trail

A foreign company wanting to take local resources and not even provide any local jobs, only in “preliminary stages”: sound familiar? Swiss company Nestlé used the same playbook to try to grab water from the Wacissa River that Houston company Spectra Energy is trying to gouge its hundred-foot right of way for its yard-wide fracked methane pipeline through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Wacissa and Jefferson County, Florida fought back and won. Counties can do the same to stop that pipeline.

Brett Adler wrote for the Florida Independent 2 December 2010, Nestle draws fire for plans to pump more water from North Florida springs,

Citizens in North Florida are gearing up for what many foresee as a drawn-out battle with Nestle Waters North America, the country’s largest water bottler, which recently completed test wells Continue reading Jefferson County, FL stopped Nestle; counties can stop Sabal Trail

Florida Panhandle route by Sabal Trail to FERC last Friday

The Florida Panhandle alternative route appears to cross several Georgia rivers by hugging the Georgia-Florida line to avoid the Apalachicola National Forest and the Lake Talquin State Forest in Florida. This looks like the route published in Florida newspapers back in June. It adds Choctaw, Clarke, Monroe, Conecuh, Covington, Coffee, Dale, Geneva, and Houston Counties in Alabama, and Jackson, Gadsden and Jefferson Counties in Florida.

Station 85 Panhandle Alternative, Florida

Extracted from Sabal Trail’s one big PDF document, here is PDF and JPG of the Florida panhandle alternative route map.

Station 85 Panhandle Alternative, Florida
Station 85 Panhandle Alternative, 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
http://spectrabusters.org/ferc/pf14-1-sabal-trail-transmission/update-2013-11-15/draft-resource-report-10-alternatives/

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