More “free trade” LNG export destinations from Florida will open up if the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) passes, to the 28 EU member countries:
Many of those countries currently get fracked gas from Russia:
Continue reading LNG export to Europe with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?
Apparently an actual fire or explosion may (or may not) count
as an accident according to PHMSA,
but there’s a huge gap in PHMSA’s definitions:
they don’t seem to say they apply to methane.
And guess whose Public Awareness Program PHMSA requires pipeline operators to follow?
According to PHMSA’s Glossary and Definitions,
Accident
A release of the hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide transported that results in any of the following:
- explosion or fire not intentionally set by the operator.
- release of Continue reading PHMSA abnormal vs. accident
A fossil fuel needle desperately trying to get another fix hit an artery and leaked oily mud and methane into a creek near Beverly, Ohio, forcing evacuation of people nearby. Once again, state agencies had to deal with a problem caused by a private company. This collateral damage drew in yet another fracking opponent, this time one founded by an opponent of the first Superfund.
Dean Narciso wrote for the Columbus Dispatch 8 May 2014, Shale well leaks during drilling process, forcing evacuations in Morgan County,
A Morgan County shale well being drilled in preparation for fracking began leaking on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of nearby residents.
State and federal environmental emergency-response teams and the drilling company finally contained the mess yesterday, but not before it reached a nearby creek.
The leak was discovered Continue reading Ohio town fracked by well leak
Fourth major incident this year for Williams, this time in Wyoming.
Yet again locals and their local and state governments were left
to pick up the tab,
and the cause is still “under investigation”.
Ryan Parker wrote for the Denver Post 23 April 2014, Wyoming town evacuated after gas plant explosion,
There was an explosion followed by a fire Wednesday afternoon at the Williams Gas Plant near Opal, Wyo..
The entire town of Opal was evacuated Continue reading Williams explosion and fire, Opal, WY 2014-04-23
Unless somebody dies or is injured, it’s not a reportable incident, says the federal agency in charge of investigating fracked methane pipeline safety. PHMSA finally deputized a state Oregon safety organization after three months of leaks from a pipeline owned by Williams Company, also owner of Transco, the first pipeline in the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> FSC chain to the sea through Alabama and Georgia to LNG export from Florida.
Lynne Terry reported for Oregon Live 10 January 2014,
Safety switch triggers natural gas leak on Sauvie Island,
Williams spokesman Tom Droege said gas spewed into the air in a controlled manner for about 70 minutes. He said Williams personnel switched the gas flow to a secondary line. The station is now operating normally.
Gas service was not interrupted during the leak and no one was injured, Droege said.
The company apologized for inconvenience to residents. Households were evacuated and the bridge was closed in response to the leak.
Three months later, Continue reading PHMSA deputized Oregon PUC to investigate three-month Williams Co. methane leak
What is FERC required to do to justifiy a pipeline certificate
and eminent domain?
John Peconom of FERC told me that
federal eminent domain was justified by Florida needing the gas,
therefore it was for the good of the United States.
Peconom didn’t provide a reference, but FERC’s own documents say FERC is supposed to balance public benefits,
which means somebody has to demonstrate those public benefits.
Also, one-time payments to landowners may not be enough.
In FERC’s own Natural Gas Environmental Guidelines, GUIDANCE MANUAL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT PREPARATION, Continue reading What is FERC required to do?
FERC’s rubberstamp machine may yet be held accountable by the citizens, and by other government agencies and courts that are taxpayer-funded, not by the industries they regulate like FERC.
Sane Energy Project posted 4 May 2014, Reportback: The Minisink Hearing, or, FERC Gets a Clue,
A court officer was asked if similar hearings were always as crowded. “Never,” he said.
This is a trend that’s building. Before Spectra, the average number of interveners on any project was about 19. Now, it’s typical for there to be 300-500 interveners, and for thousands of comments to be filed. Lately, activists are getting under FERC’s skin even more, showing up repeatedly at hearings, Commission meetings, and soon, a rally in front of their offices.
Ted Glick, coordinator for Cheseapeake Climate Action Network, one of the main groups fighting the Cove Point LNG export terminal in Maryland, said, Continue reading FERC hearing packed by activists
If you guessed the taxpayers, as I did, nope. On FERC’s own About FERC web page:
The Commission is funded through costs recovered by the fees and annual charges from the industries it regulates.
To make it even richer, the sentence before that reads:
There is no review of FERC decisions by the President or Congress, maintaining FERC’s independence as a regulatory agency, and providing for fair and unbiased decisions.
But FERC’s web page says nothing about FERC’s independence from
the industries it regulates.
Here’s Investopedia’s definition of regulatory capture:
Regulatory capture happens when a regulatory agency, formed to act in the public’s interest, eventually acts in ways that benefit the industry it is supposed to be regulating, rather than the public.
Maybe that’s why Continue reading Who funds FERC?
Williams Co.’s excuse: “an insufficient level of firm customer commitment”
for its Marcellus shale to Gulf of Mexico gas pipe.
That’s corporate-ese for it got to be too expensive; it’s the same thing
a company that wanted to put a biomass plant in Lowndes County said.
Couldn’t have had anything to do with massive public resistance, oh no.
This is the same Williams Co. that owns Transco, first in the chain
of the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> Florida Southeast Connection
pipeline through Alabama and Georgia to Florida’s Atlantic
and Gulf coasts, where there are already several companies
authorized for LNG export.
That one could get too expensive, too.
Tim Rudell wrote for WKSU 29 April 2014, Bluegrass pipeline project through Ohio and beyond is cancelled, Continue reading Bluegrass fracked methane pipeline cancelled
FPL doubled down on a need
because it claims fracked methane is “clean”,
in its
FERC filing of 21 April 2014.
FPL says it is
“a strong supporter of solar power”
even though it
didn’t increase its solar capacity from 2010 to 2013
because of the lame baseload capacity excuse.
FPL says it knows nothing about
Export of Gas, even though
Floridian LNG, located next to FPL’s Martin County “Clean Energy” Center right at the end of the Transco-Sabal-FSC pipeline,
was approved for LNG export by the U.S. DoE Office Fossil Energy (FE)
14 November 2013,
and
Crowley Maritime’s Carib Energy
was approved for export from Florida by FE 27 July 2011.
And FPL says its ratepayers are not paying the costs
of the pipeline, even though FPL VP of development and external affairs Pam Rauch
argued in pring 29 July 2012 for a “Clean Energy” (fracked methane) Center at Cape Canaveral
that was one of several mentioned
by the Tampa Times 24 October 2014
as a reason for a new pipeline,
and that same Pam Rauch
filed PF14-2 with FERC for the Florida Southeast Connection (FSC) pipeline that connects from Sabal Trail to FPL’s
“Clean Energy” Center in Martin County, next to Floridian LNG.
FPL doesn’t seem to know what’s going on next to it,
and maybe not what its own employees are doing.
I hope EPA doesn’t consider
the questions it filed with FERC the same day
answered by this weak tea from FPL.
April 21, 2014
Ms. Kimberly D. Bose
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20426Subject: Southeast Market Pipelines Project
Docket Nos. PF14-1-000, PF14-2-000, and PF14-6-000Dear Ms. Bose:
Florida Power & Light Company (“FPL”) hereby submits these comments in response Continue reading FPL supports solar power without spending money on it –FPL to FERC