Canadian based, Emera Inc., has acquired TECO – Tampa Electric Company.
“The acquisition of TECO Energy advances a number of important strategic objectives for Emera,” said Chris Huskilson, president and CEO of Emera Inc. “We expect it to be Continue reading Emera, Inc – A Natural Gas Exporter Acquires TECO – Tampa Electric
Strom can ramp up its LNG export to the Gulf from Crystal River an order of magnitude with its initial units,
and then add more units, all without any further approval by anybody, says this Order from the U.S. DoE Office of Fossil Energy,
which also appears to permit bomb trains shipping LNG anywhere in Florida,
or maybe even other states, with some of the fracked methane probably coming from Sabal Trail if built.
This FE Order was issued 21 October 2014, one month to the day before
Sabal Trail filed in the FERC formal process in
21 November 2014.
Yet not a word was said about Strom or any other LNG export by FERC or Sabal Trail in any of the FERC Scoping Meetings I went to,
as
I pointed out at the one 1 October 2015 in Lake City, Florida.
FE is even more a rubberstamp regulatory-captured lapdog of the fossil fuel industry than is FERC, and Strom is setting up to require no further approvals by them or anybody else: Continue reading Strom Crystal River LNG export approval 2014-10-21
When: Saturday, 16 January 2016 – 11 AM with hike at 1 PM
Where: Suwannee River State Park
3621 201st Path, Live Oak, FL
15 miles west of Live Oak on US 90 Continue reading Hike to the Suwannee River with Sierra Club against Sabal Trail – Jan. 16, 2016
Twice in five years a sinkhole big enough to risk rerouting a road
appears in Lowndes County, Georgia, in the same fragile karst limestone
Valdosta limesink terrain Sabal Trail proposes to gouge through
What if a sinkhole drops under that pipeline, and, like FGT in 2013,
Sabal Trail declares force majeure and doesn’t pay?
See On the LAKE Front, 2015-08-06, County and news media digging deeper on Shiloh sinkhole story, Continue reading New sinkhole in Lowndes County terrain Sabal Trail wants to gouge through
Citing the GDOT denial of KMI’s Palmetto Pipeline and numerous specific hazards of Spectra Energy’s proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline (sinkholes in karst limestone and a compressor station next to Albany’s water wells, all for no benefit to Georgia, by a company with a poor safety record), U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (GA-02) wrote to FERC (PDF):
I believe that FERC should deny STT’s application for a Certificate of Public Necessity.
And he told FERC to tell Sabal Trail to stop suing his constituents for eminent domain.
A year after
Rep. Bishop listened in Albany for two hours to complaints about Sabal Trail,
Dougherty County and
Albany, Georgia
filed followup letters to their resolutions against that pipeline.
Neither FERC nor Sabal Trail answered them,
so their Representative in the U.S. Congress forwarded their
letters with that sharp cover letter.
Three weeks later, FERC still hasn’t even filed his letter in their e-comment system,
much less responded to it.
Just how lawless is FERC, anyway? Doesn’t a member of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations give them pause? Continue reading Deny Sabal Trail, said U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, and FERC ignored him
The proposed 36-inch Sabal Trail pipeline next to that old FGT line would have 81 times as much gas; maybe more, since it’s apparently also higher pressure.
Gainesville.com staff reported 27 June 2013, Ruptured gas line explodes in Gilchrist,
A high-pressure natural gas pipeline exploded into a gigantic fireball and 30-foot-high flames in Gilchrist County on Tuesday night after a tree fell and ruptured the line, authorities said.
The tree also took down a power line, which officials said likely ignited the escaping gas.
Gainesville Fire Rescue’s Haz-Mat team and district chief responded to the scene in Bell at around 6:30 p.m. to assist Gilchrist County units.
An emergency crew from the natural gas company helped the rescue units find and secure a shut-off valve for the 4-inch line. The crews stood by while the residual gas burned off.
Gainesville.com posted video from Gainesville Fire and Rescue. It’s quite impressive, and unfortunately unembeddable, so follow the link to see it.
WCBJ TV reported 27 June 2012, Gas Line Explosion Lights up Road, Continue reading Giant fireball from 4-inch pipeline in Gilchrist County, FL 2012-06-27
Dismissed by FERC for lack of payment?
No worries, Strom, Inc.’s other LNG export application with the
FE is still active, and Strom asked to move the location, too,
to Crystal River.
Just east on Power Line Road from Duke Energy’s permantly-closed
Crystal River nuke and proposed new gas plant.
Strom says it would get the fracked methane from either FGT
or Sabal Trail, which is either an intrastate or an interstate
pipeline depending on which of Strom’s sentences you believe.
No, Strom’s CEO’s name is not Loki; it’s just pronounced that way,
and spelled Lokey.
Remember in July FERC dismissed Strom’s Starke LNG application for lack of fee payment. The Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) apparently has no such scruples, since its STROM INC, FE DKT. NO. 14-56-LNG was updated 29 September 2014 with Strom Inc. – Amendment to Application to Reflect New Location of the Plant, Continue reading Strom asks FE to move LNG export application location
Marcellus Shale fracked methane through Atlantic Sunrise to Transco to Sabal Trail to TECO to Jaxport for LNG export?
And maybe an explanation for why Sempra Energy, like Spectra Energy,
donated to both GA Gov. Nathan Deal’s and AL Gov. Robert Bentley’s
re-election campaigns.
Sempra apparently wants to export Marcellus Shale gas from Jacksonville,
and Sabal Trail is the proposed conduit for that through Alabama and Georgia
to Florida.
John Burr wrote for Jacksonville Business Journal 10 March 2014, TECO Peoples Gas looks to expand natural gas pipeline to Jacksonville, Continue reading Sabal Trail to TECO to Jaxport for LNG export?
FERC just directed Sabal Trail to actually address problems raised
by citizens and local government agencies, plus numerous discrepencies
FERC itself detected.
Opposition to this unnecessary and hazardous fracked methane
pipeline is having effects, even with rubberstamping FERC.
But watch out Tifton, Valdosta, Thomasville, and The Villages!
You’re now on possible routes.
Sabal Trail is to provide details for Greenlaw’s route-around-Albany proposals on behalf of Sierra Club and others Valdosta, you’re back in two proposed routes, the the one you saw last summer, plus one down I-75 that would go right past Lowndes High School and also past The Villages in sinkhole-prone Sumter County, Florida. Tifton, you’re not safe; look at that Hillabee route. Thomasville watch out: you’re on a new proposed route.
Sabal Trail is to provide alternatives to minimize effects on or
completely avoid the
Withlacoochee River,
and this is even before the Hamilton County Commission’s resolution
against the pipeline gets to FERC.
FERC’s letter is peppered with requirements to cooperate with federal, state, and local agencies especially including about land use and environmental requirements and land approvals.
It explicitly says that
all surveys Continue reading Explain karst, sinkholes, discrepencies, and routes around Albany and the Withlacoochee River –FERC to Sabal Trail
Raining on Spectra’s pipeline parade,
Duke Energy’s Citrus County power plant open house
once again emphasized Duke doesn’t care if Spectra and FPL’s fracked methane
pipeline is ever built.
And it’s not just because of Duke’s power plant that natural
gas prices may go up soon:
Sabal Trail feeding methane to already-authorized
LNG export operations in Florida would also push prices up.
So why build that useless Sabal Trail boondoggle?
Why build that Duke gas plant, for that matter;
why not go straight to solar power in the Sunshine State?
Fred Hiers wrote for Ocala.com 14 July 2014, Utility will build plant with or without new pipeline, Continue reading Duke Energy doesn’t care whether Sabal Trail pipeline is ever built