Rick Scott’s financial ties to fracking got that driller kicked out
of Florida.
Now that Gov. Scott has been tied to the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline,
maybe Florida will kick Spectra out of the state, too.
Steve Bousquet wrote for the Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau 13 June 2014, Scott’s stake in oil company tied to Collier drilling riles environmentalists, Continue reading Gov. Scott tied to Everglades drilling: driller kicked out of Florida
Jordan Cove and Oregon LNG, plus Plymouth LNG that blew up in March:
Spectra and Williams are running 36-inch pipelines through the Pacific
Northwest to LNG export terminals.
Is it coincidence that their 36-inch Transco and Sabal Trail pipelines
through the southeast go right to LNG export operations?
Columbia and Rogue Riverkeepers remind us states have water and air permitting
authority for pipelines, and don’t forget local governments have zoning authority,
plus landowners can hold out for much better offers.
From Spectra’s Westcoast Pipeline through the fields of the countersuing Chilliwack, BC farmers, and Williams’ Washington Expanstion Project down I-5 past Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia, turn right at Woodland, Oregon, because: Continue reading Williams Co’s WEP pipeline anchor customer is Oregon LNG for export
EPA is holding public hearings on its proposed Clean Power Plan next week, 29-30 July 2014, in Atlanta. Maybe you want to mention shifting from coal to “natural” gas (fracked methane) actually may make matters worse here, with proposed pipelines like the hazardous 36-inch monsters Sabal Trail through south Georgia and Renaissance through north Georgia, on environmentally damaging hundred-foot rights of way through our fields, forests, wetlands, and under our rivers. so EPA needs to go further. You can also comment online until 16 October 2014 on Docket ID EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602. And you can express your opinion outside with Georgia Sierra Club at the Atlanta Climate Rally Tuesday at high noon. And remember, mercury in the Alapaha River probably comes from coal Plant Scherer, near Macon, Georgia.
While that proposed carbon rule may help clean up coal plants like Scherer, it says nothing about methane, which EPA says is Continue reading Climate Rally and EPA hearings Tuesday and Wednesday in Atlanta
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson of Our Santa Fe River
sent this letter yesterday to the same
newspapers Sabal Trail has been in recently. -jsq
Sabal Trail’s spokesperson distributing large quantities of disinformation
“Safety, public input, federal monitoring, jobs, tax revenue, exceed federal safety requirements, reliability, affordable, clean, thorough review, latest proven technologies:” these are all good little meta tags and nice sounding words and phrases used by Andrea Grover, public relations employee for Sabal Trail, in her recent editorial about that company’s proposed natural gas pipeline which was carried by newspapers in the southeastern United States.
But let us point out a few facts that this editorial fails to mention. There were plenty of public input meetings (we attended seven of these, and we read the minutes from others) and the input was overwhelmingly negative. Issues of concern include Continue reading Inadequate insurance and safety plus eminent domain and environmental destruction by Sabal Trail –OSFR
If they can’t even survey for it, they can’t build it, which may be why
Andrea Grover just chanted desperately in three newspapers
“the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline is moving forward.”
Nevermind almost everyone who has spoken up about it is against it.
She didn’t say anything about taking your land for
for profit for her company in Houston and for LNG export
that would raise U.S. natural gas prices.
But one thing she did say
is why that can happen with no further permits if this pipeline
should go forward.
Almost everybody opposed the pipeline at the
“more than 50 open houses and public meetings”
Ms. Grover bragged about in
the Orlando Sentinel,
in
the Suwannee Democrat,
and in
the Moultrie Observer.
She didn’t mention that opposition, but you can
see it for yourself in these Continue reading The evitability of Andrea Grover’s fracked methane pipeline
Spectra competitor Kinder Morgan is trying to fly under residents’ radar to gouge its hundred-foot Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) right of way through Massachusetts. This is another $3 billion boondoggle that, like Spectra’ Sabal Trail pipeline through the southeast, could easily be replaced by solar power and conservation, which would keep LNG export from running up the price of existing methane gas supplies.
Nick Miller wrote for Nashoba Publishing 11 July 2014, Why Kinder Morgan fears an informed public,
Kinder Morgan is proposing to build a large, high pressure natural gas pipeline through 45 towns in Massachusetts, including Groton.
More than five month ago, agents of this company entered the town of Groton and began requesting that affected residents sign survey permission forms. They did not disclose Continue reading Kinder Morgan tries stealth pipeline expansion in Massachusetts
LNG export to Canada or Mexico with almost no permitting
and no environmental review of anything but the part that
crosses the border. That’s H.R. 3301, just passed by the
U.S. House of Representatves, but not yet taken up by
the Senate, and already the presdent’s administration “strongly opposes” it;
so strongly his advisors recommend vetoing it.
Apparently H.R. 6 for blanket export to all WTO countries isn’t
likely to pass, so fracked methane pushers are trying a similar
approach for fewer countries.
Get it across the nearest borders, and then export to other countries?
Previously listening Sanford Bishop (GA-02 Albany) voted for both bills
in the full House.
On Congress.gov, H.R. 3301 – North American Energy Infrastructure Act 113th Congress (2013-2014) and on govtrack.us.
North American Energy Infrastructure Act—(Sec. 3) Prohibits any person from constructing, connecting, operating, or maintaining a cross-border segment of an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric transmission facility at the national boundary of the United States for the import or export of oil, natural gas, or electricity to or from Canada or Mexico without obtaining a certificate of crossing under this Act.
Requires the Secretary of State, Continue reading Another speed-permit LNG export bill: H.R. 3301
Mortgage effects of fracking and methane pipelines have been a concern for more than two years now. Do you want a fracked methane pipeline through your property that you might want to mortgage someday or already have a mortgage on?
Ian Urbina wrote for the New York times 19 October 2011, Rush to Drill for Natural Gas Creates Conflicts With Mortgages,
Mr. May said the issue was causing “a high level of concern for prudent banks and lenders.” He and other bankers have also questioned how the growing grid of buried pipelines that carry natural gas from wells to consumers will comply with mortgage rules. A separate report from the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of Congress, said signing a drilling lease without prior approval on a property with a mortgage owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac “generally will be considered an act of default under the mortgage.”
That could give either of the federally run companies the right to demand immediate payment of the full loan and even foreclose on the property if the owner cannot pay, the report said.
-jsq
Of course FPL and Spectra don’t want FERC to look at fracking,
but nothing in FERC’s own rules says it can’t,
and a recent court case might be a precedent to get it to do so.
Maybe Audubon Florida is discovering trying to tinker with pipeline routes
is like signing up for the 1885 Berlin Conference that divided Africa
by drawing lines on a map.
Sierra Club Florida, Georgia, and Alabama already understand the only
appropriate route for that fracked methane boondoggle is no route,
with new power from the sun.
I’ve added a few links to these quotes from what Susan Salisbury wrote for the Palm Beach Post 5 May 2014, Fracking not an issue with pipeline for FPL’s plants, firms say, Continue reading Sabal Trail and FSC want FERC to avoid considering fracking
Would this U.S. Court of Appeals ruling mean FERC needs to
consider the cumulative effects of the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline
on the same properties as the existing SONAT pipeline?
And what about those
LNG export authorizations FERC has repeatedly
claimed it knows nothing about?
And how can FERC justify that project at all, given that
solar power is faster, cheaper, and far less environmentally damaging?
Katie Colaneri wrote for NPR 6 June 2014, Court rules federal regulators must consider cumulative impacts of pipeline project,
Regulators violated federal law by not considering the cumulative environmental impacts of multiple upgrades to a natural gas pipeline that runs from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, a federal appeals court said on Friday.
Three environmental groups argued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should not have been allowed to conduct an environmental review for one expansion project on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline without considering three other proposed upgrades on the same line.
The U.S. Court of Appeals agreed.
The judges ruled that FERC failed “to include any meaningful analysis of the cumulative impacts of the upgrade projects.” The judges also found Continue reading FERC has to consider cumulative pipeline effects