Filed with FERC
25 November 2013:
Continue reading We already have 2 pipelines –Don Brotherton to FERCDon Brotherton, Valdosta, GA.
I am totally against this proposed project tentatively coming across our property. We already have 2 pipelines and a 3rd would totally devastate our property value not to mention the safety issues and concerns. Sabal should chose a less populated alternative route.
Filed with FERC 24 November 2013:
Keren Wynn, Valdosta, GA.
I understand the need for this pipeline, but I am very concerned about the associated safety risks and the negative impact it will have on private property owners in Lowndes and Brooks Counties. Our daughter’s best friend and her family are directly affected with the proposed pipeline being located just a few feet from their home. I have concerns for the safety of this family and for my daughter based on reports of numerous explosions of these types of pipelines in other areas. This pipeline will run through a rural area that is only served by volunteer fire departments that are not capable of handling this type of potential disaster. The focus for Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC is on profits and not for the safety or well being of residents of this area. The proposed route should not directly affect private land owners. This project should be required to follow a route that utilizes public right of ways. Thank you for your assistance.
How to comment with FERC.
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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
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Do you believe Sabal Trail that the pipeline won’t affect the value
of your land?
If what Spectra Energy’s
Vice President of Stakeholder Outreach & Sustainability
says is true, why doesn’t Sabal Trail just buy the affected properties?
They should be able to resell it later for equal or greater value.
Rheya Spigner wrote for mysouthwestga.com (fox31online) 12 December 2013, Possible pipeline through Colquitt County,
Susan Waller with the Sabal Trail Transmission says “one concern (from residents) is that it’ll impact the value of the land.” Which she adds isn’t true, but could affect vegetation.
They didn’t quote Andrea Grover, Director, Stakeholder Outreach. Maybe they discovered she, like Brian Fahrenthold, was not familiar with Spectra’s history of fines? And as a Vice President, Susan Waller would appear to be Andrea Grover’s boss. Have we gotten their attention enough that they are escalating within Spectra?
John Peconom of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) says Continue reading Possible pipeline through Colquitt County –Fox31
Just as natural gas has beaten coal in less than five years,
solar power is already beating gas,
so betting on LNG exports or even fracked methane
for domestic power is a bad investment.
These are some implications of a new Citi GPS report.
The switch from gas to solar is already happening in Germany and in the U.S., according to Citi GPS in Energy Darwinism: The Evolution of the Energy Industry, October 2013, page 9:
…moreover, solar steals the most valuable part of electricity generation at the peak of the day when prices are highest. This effect has already caused the German utilities to release profit warnings, with some gas power plants in Germany running for less than 10 days in 2012, all of which makes some utilities reluctant to build new gas plants given fears over long term utilisation rates and hence returns.
And not just in Germany; see page 84:
This is not a ‘tomorrow’ story, as we are already seeing utilities altering investment plans, even in the shale-driven U.S., with examples of utilities switching plans for peak-shaving gas plants, and installing solar farms in their stead.
Wind is also beating coal; page 9 again:
Wind is already overshadowing coal in the second quartile. While wind’s intermittency is an issue, with more widespread national adoption it begins to exhibit more baseload characteristics (i.e. it runs more continuously on an aggregated basis). Hence it becomes a viable option, without the risk of low utilisation rates in developed markets, commodity price risk or associated cost of carbon risks.
By no “commodity price risk” they allude to wind requiring no fuel. And that’s also true of solar, as they spell out on page 90: Continue reading Solar learns faster than any other energy source –Citi GPS
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
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Valdosta, December 9, 2013—What’s been done and what can be done to stop a
natural gas pipeline proposed to gash through here for the profit of companies far away. It’s not just a federal issue: there are things every state and local government and citizen can do to prevent this safety and property value hazard.
When:
7 PM to 9 PM
Thursday, December 12th 2013
Where:
Lowndes County Offices
Multi-Purpose Room
327 N. Ashley Street, 2nd floor
Valdosta, GA 31601
Phone: (229) 671-2442
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.
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
Commissioner Tony Clark’s LNG export comments are the pullquote in the U.S. House Committee’s own writeup. His testimony says a surplus of fracked gas in the U.S. is driving both LNG exports and new pipelines. Not customer demand in Florida: producer demand for new markets. Do we want a pipeline through our lands to profit fat cats in Houston?
Given Clark’s background as a public service commissioner in fracking North Dakota, he seems likely to be a fracking, LNG export, and gas pipeline advocate. New FERC Acting Chair Cheryl A. LaFleur’s testimony set the stage for Clark’s remarks:
FERC Commissioner Phillip D. Moeller’s testimony included this Orwellian remark:Increased availability of domestic natural gas and its growing use in power generation also has implications for natural gas infrastructure, which Commissioner Clark will touch on in his testimony.
Over the last 22 months, the Commission has undertaken significant efforts to address the growing convergence of the natural gas and electric industries through seven technical conferences and regular updates. In November the Commission issued its final rule relating to communications regarding sensitive system information in an effort to open communication channels between interstate natural gas pipelines and operators of wholesale electric markets.
So we should pave the way for natural gas plowing through our property by making communications about it federally sensitive?
Written Testimony of Commissioner Tony Clark
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Before the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Energy and Power
United States House of Representatives
Hearing on
Evaluating the Role of FERC in a Changing Energy Landscape
December 5, 2013
The large amount of natural gas in the U.S. is also creating an impetus for something that was nearly unimaginable ten or fifteen year ago, LNG export, as opposed to import terminals. This is an area of significant workload increase for the Commission.
Presently, the FERC has thirteen proposed LNG export terminals and three LNG import terminals in some phase of the permitting process. As you would expect, the reviews that entail safely siting large multi-billion dollar energy projects such as these are extensive.
Note he doesn’t say anything about deciding whether to site LNG export terminals, just doing it “safely”. So this FERC Commissioner seems in favor of what another House subcommittee is also pushing: LNG exports.
But what about pipelines? Those are also driven by fossil fuel company fracked shale gas gluts, not by customer demand:
As you might expect, the shale revolution in both liquids and natural gas production is having a tremendous impact on the work of the FERC. We see this Continue reading FERC Commissioner pushes LNG exports to House Subcommitee
Filed with FERC 25 November 2013:
henry g. jowers, valdosta ga., GA.
I am very opposed to the proposed 36 in. gas line being placed on my land.It will be too close to my;; work shop and home. I FEAR for my family’s safety.I think this gas line will destory; the value of my home and land.
Henry g. Jowers
How to comment with FERC.