Category Archives: Health

Respect the rights of citizens and landowners –Danielle Jordan to FERC

Filed with FERC 24 November 2013:

Danielle Jordan, Valdosta, GA.

The proposal to build a natural gas pipeline by Sabal Trail/Spectra Energy is unnecessary and, undoubtedly, not in the best interest of the citizens living along its path. Not only will the construction of this pipeline create safety issues and devalue the property of affected landowners, it also serves as an extension of the fracking industry responsible for contaminated groundwater in drilling areas. The externalized costs of the natural gas industry are far too detrimental to public health for this to be considered when the potential for solar power in our region remains largely untapped.

Furthermore, natural gas has been marketed as Continue reading Respect the rights of citizens and landowners –Danielle Jordan to FERC

Talk to FERC at Clyattville Elementary Monday 2013-12-16

PDF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Valdosta, December 13, 2013 –Landowners and others can talk directly to the federal oversight agency that has to approve any new pipelines will be at an Open House they required Sabal Trail Transmission to hold Clyattville Elementary Monday evening. For those who are unable to stand and circulate the room an area will be provided and representatives from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) have been assigned just for this area. Protesters against the pipeline will be out front starting at 4PM.

When:  5:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Monday, December 16 th 2013

Where: Clyattville Elementary School
5386 Madison Highway
Valdosta, GA 31601
Phone: (229) 559-7062

Why: Spectra Energy proposes a hundred-foot-wide gash through our lands for their huge 36 inch Sabal Trail gas pipeline from Alabama through Georgia to feed Florida Power and Light (FPL) for no benefit to local citizens. A one-time payment is nowhere near adequate for permanent destruction and hazards when FPL and Spectra would profit forever.

Property values: Continue reading Talk to FERC at Clyattville Elementary Monday 2013-12-16

Reclamation means planting grass and laying down straw where 100 year old trees used to stand

The fossil fuel industry has hijacked a perfectly good word to cover their destructions.

Wendy Lynn Lee wrote for The Wrench, 5 December 2013, CADAVER COSMETICS: THE AESTHETICS OF “SUSTAINABILITY”,

The following is an excerpt from a forthcoming article, “Sustainable Wasteland,” scheduled to be published in 2014—but more importantly, it inaugurates a new series devoted to dismantling the concept of “sustainability” as the greenwashing masquerade of an industry that would convince us that “reclamation” means planting grass and laying down straw where 100 year old trees used to stand, that painting natural gas pipeline forest green is forest restoration. I have coined the phrase cadaver cosmetics to signal that what underlay the”landscape architecture” of the fracking industry’s notion of “sustainability” is nothing but powder on the face of a corpse that was once an ecosystem.

Some refer to the effort to conceal a bad deal as if it were a good one as “lipstick on a pig.” But in that case, we’re at least invited to imagine Continue reading Reclamation means planting grass and laying down straw where 100 year old trees used to stand

Profits out of a dying industry at the expense of the communities and people’s health and livelihoods –April Huntley to FERC

Filed with FERC yesterday:

April Huntley, Naylor, GA.

The proposed natural gas pipeline by Sabal Trails/Spectra Energy is not in the interest of United States citizens much less the states that it crosses—Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Natural gas and fossil fuel companies are trying to force profits out of a dying industry at the expense of the communities and people’s health and livelihoods in their wake. Fossil fuels are dirty and dangerous sources of energy that FERC should not approve new projects for. We need to conserve our land and water for all people, instead of destroying them for money and profits that cannot replace diminished life.

I ask that docket # PF14-1 not be approved. Please protect the rights of the landowners affected by this pipeline route. Nobody should be forced to have a pipeline as large as 36″ with an explosion radius of 600′ on their land. There are as many as 80 explosions a year from natural gas pipelines causing injury and death to those unfortunate enough to be in the path of one. Natural gas is not a safe alternative fuel as the industry tries to paint the picture. We need focus on renewable energies that are safe for humans and the environment. Exploitation of the environment for corporate profits needs to become a thing of the past!

How to comment with FERC.

AARP against FPL rate hike for gas pipeline

Today is the last day to file legal protest against the Sabal Trail pipeline at the Florida PSC. AARP is already protesting FPL’s rate hikes for that pipeline all the way to the Supreme Court, for the health, safety, and financial security of AARP members; concerns that are just as valid along the whole path of that proposed pipeline as they are for FPL ratepayers in Florida.

Dr. Richard Swier wrote for watchdogwire.com 3 May 2013, AARP files brief in the Florida Supreme Court challenging the Florida Public Service Commission: Lawsuit involves FPL rate increase,

Attorney Jack L. McRay — representing the AARP — has filed a brief with the Florida Supreme Court asking the Court to remand the recent decision by the Florida Public Service Commission (Commission) to approval a “secret” settlement agreement between Florida Power & Light (FPL) and three other parties related to FPL’s March 2012 petition filed with the Commission to raise electric rates for some 4.1 million customers.

What are these rate increases for? Let’s go to the horse’s mouth, FPL VP of development and external affairs Pam Rauch, the same who filed PF14-2 at FERC for the connecting pipeline Florida Southeast Connection LLC (FSC), wrote in Florida Voices 29 July 2012, FPL Makes Its Case for Rate Increase, Continue reading AARP against FPL rate hike for gas pipeline

Do like drinking anti-freeze? –Blake Clark

On the facebook page 3 November 2013. -jsq

Do you like drinking swimming pool cleaner, table salt, automotive anti-freeze, household cleaners, laundry detergent, hand soap, disinfectants, sanitizers, glass cleaner, or anti-prespirants? NO? Me either, all of these compounds are used in the hydraulic fracturing process (fracking) implemented by Spectra Energy, whom wish to build a pipeline through our county from Alabama to Florida. Join VSU students and Lowndes county members in the viewing of GASLAND part 2. Also, theres an organized movement opposing the new pipeline through our county and state! Spectrabusters.

-Blake Spaghetty Clark

Move pipeline to unpopulated electric corridor –Gertrude C. Dickinson

Why should a pipeline company from Texas get to gouge a 100 foot path through a flood plain despite local restrictions and make enough noise to threaten a local resident in Sumter County, Florida? A very thorough comment on Sabal Trail’s PF14-1 by Gertrude C. Dickinson raises these questions.

Deed restrictions with flood plain restrictions According to deed restrictions on her lot, which is uphill from the proposed pipeline route. Downhill is hardly less in the flood plain of Florida’s Withlacoochee River in Sumter County.

No permanent structures of fill material of any sort shall be placed within the delineated flood plain areas.

We’ve heard from Ms. Dickinson before, in her letter to SpectraBusters, Half Moon Wildlife Management Area and Sabal Trails and in a story by mynews123.com, Florida opposition to Spectra pipeline. Here’s her comment sent 12 October 2013 and stamped received 21 October 2013 by FERC:

Letter (1 of 2) Docket #PF 14-1
Sabal Transmission

Gertrude C. Dickinson
7963 CR247
(Rutland Ranch DeveIopment- Deed Restricted)
(Rutland, Florida 33538)
Post Office Mailing Address:
Lake Panasoffkee, FL 33538

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Attn: Secretary Sarah McKinley
888 First Street N.E
Washington, DC 20426
RE: Pre-filing Docket- Sabal Transmission II PF14—1

Half Moon Wildlife Management Area Continue reading Move pipeline to unpopulated electric corridor –Gertrude C. Dickinson