Category Archives: Maine

WALB in Albany, GA notices New England Spectra pipeline plans

A Spectra is haunting New England and the Canadian Maritimes, as well as the U.S. southeast, seeking every market for its fracked methane pipelines, sliming lands along the way. Local media are starting to pay attention to the big picture, not just the local hauntings, such as Spectra’s proposed Sabal Trail Transmission 36-inch 100-foot right of way gash through the southeast. Spectra didn’t say, but those markets could include LNG export from Excelerate Energy’s Northeast Gateway in Massachusetts Bay or the proposed Goldboro LNG export terminal in Nova Scotia. If LNG export happens, the price of “natural” gas in the U.S. and Canada will go up.

WALB TV in Albany, GA ran this PR from Spectra Energy 1 July 2014, Spectra Energy Announces Plans to Further Expand New England Pipeline Systems; Continue reading WALB in Albany, GA notices New England Spectra pipeline plans

Methane pipeline safety record questioned –Lauren Ritchie

A reporter for a major newspaper is calling Spectra on its safety record, and calling Spectra’s responses “not good enough”! After thirty years of Spectra safety promises, that’s putting it mildly. A Maine resident put it this way after the Spectra’s Searsmont compressor blowout: “we were clearly lied to”.

Lauren Ritchie wrote for the Orlando Sentinel today, Safety record of natural-gas pipeline partner raises concerns,

Spectra Energy Corp. along with FPL’s parent, NextEra Energy, would bury the 473-mile Sabal Trail pipeline expected to carry 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas to just south of Orlando in Osceola County, where it would connect to another line for eventual delivery to FPL in Martin County.

Spectra’s safety record, however, leaves something to be desired.

Take, for example, the company’s Texas Eastern pipeline, a 9,200-mile Spectra project connecting Texas with the markets in the Northeast.

Between 2006 and 2013, the company had 21 “incidents” along the line, causing Continue reading Methane pipeline safety record questioned –Lauren Ritchie

“The most terrifying experience”: Spectra blows another compressor station

Spectra Energy refuses to say much about a compressor station leak in Maine, much like the one in Pennsylvania in March 2013. Spectra’s Susan Waller did offer that in a real emergency everyone would have been evacuated. Who wants that next to the five compressor stations Spectra proposes along the Sabal Trail Transmission pipeline it wants to gouge through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida?

Abigail Curtis wrote for Bangor Daily News 15 January 2014, ‘The most terrifying experience’: Residents question safety in wake of malfunction at Searsmont natural gas pipeline station,

First came the noise late New Year’s Eve at the Searsmont natural gas pipeline compressor station, so loud that it caused nearby homes to shake and some residents, frightened by the jet-engine-like roar, to pack up their cars and flee for the night.

Then came the questions, as some members of the normally quiet rural community wondered how safe — or dangerous — it is to live so close to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline facility. The station was shut down for Continue reading “The most terrifying experience”: Spectra blows another compressor station