Tag Archives: FSC

Ecomment to FERC by Nov 15th

Facebook event: Due to local opposition to an unnecessary fracked methane pipeline, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) made Sabal Trail (FPL and Spectra Energy) produce four new route alternatives, and FERC set a deadline of November 15th for comments on them.

http://spectrabusters.org/2014/10/15/sabal-trail-notice-of-eis-intent-and-route-alternatives-2/

Here’s how to send your ecomments to FERC before then: Continue reading Ecomment to FERC by Nov 15th

Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent and Route Alternatives

A FERC comment period ending 15 November 2014 seems to mean Sabal Trail will miss its 31 October formal filing date. 300x391 Withlacoochee River Crossing Route Alternative, Hamilton and Suwannee Counties, Florida (bare), in Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 15 October 2014 No relief suggested for crossing the Withlacoochee River at the border of Brooks and Lowndes Counties, Georgia (or inside Lowndes County next to Valdosta, according to several of the previous alternatives). And every proposed path still crosses the Suwannee River into Suwannee County.

Maybe that’s because the Dougherty County Commission and the Albany City Council actually stood up for their citizens, as did Gilchrist County (see Wacassassa Flats Alternative), while the Suwannee County Commission swallowed Sabal Trail disinformation and the Lowndes County Commission and the Valdosta City Council did little (except one letter from the Chairman) or nothing (except one letter from one Council member).

300x131 Sasser Route Alternative, Albany Compressor station Alternatives, Terrell, Lee, and Dougherty Counties. Georgia (bottom), in Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 15 October 2014 There’s still time for Dougherty, Lowndes, and all the other counties and cities to pass ordinances, and to lobby state and federal agencies and elected and appointed officials. Oh, and there’s an election going on.

Also no mention of Sabal Trail’s Jasper, Florida Open House, 5-7:30 Tuesday 21 October 2014, but STT’s newspaper notice said the public is invited, so y’all come!

Filed with FERC today, 15 October 2014, Supplemental Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environment Impact Statement for the Planned Southeast Market Pipeline Project and Request for Comments on Environmental Issues etc. re Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC under PF14-1.

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Docket No. PF14-1-000

Continue reading Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent and Route Alternatives

Help stop pipelines: donate to SpectraBusters today

You can donate to SpectraBusters to help stop the unnecessary, environmentally damaging, and hazardous Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, and its siblings Transco Hillabee and FSC, too.

You can help pay for contacting landowners (so they’ll hear something more than pipeline company PR), for contacting the public with billboards (currently we’re aiming for I-75 southbound near Lake City), and other work, ranging from research possibly up to legal assistance. Donate online today!

And don’t forget to send an ecomment to FERC.

Policy passed unanimously by SpectraBusters board 1 September 2014

Continue reading Help stop pipelines: donate to SpectraBusters today

FSC formally filed for FERC permit 26 September 2014

FERC got around to posting that online and sending an alert to ecomment subscribers today, two weeks later. You or your group can now file as an intervenor for FSC under the new docket CP14-554-000. Or you can ecomment under that docket. Sabal Trail and Transco have not yet filed for formal permitting, but Sabal Trail has repeatedly said it plans to do so 31 October 2014.

Here’s HTML of that notice letter. Search for CP14-554-000 in FERC’s General Search and you’ll find a large number of PDF and other files, many marked “Availability: Privileged”, as in this pipeline or Sabal Trail or Transco may gouge through your back yard or under your river, going right to three already-authorized LNG export operations in Florida, but you don’t get to see FPL’s rationalizations for why. Maybe if those rationalizations were public, they’d stink even more.

To get alerts on the formal filing, you’ll need to log in (or register first) with FERC and subscribe to docket CP14-554.

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

Florida Southeast Connection, LLC Docket No. CP14-554-000
PF14-2-000

NOTICE OF APPLICATION

Continue reading FSC formally filed for FERC permit 26 September 2014

Comment to FERC for the Global Frackdown

Send your ecomment to FERC today or tomorrow for the Oct 11th Global Frackdown event by Food & Water Watch. Easiest way is to use FERC’s ecomment system: here’s how to do that. Or follow this link for FERC postal address, telephone number, and email address.

And you can call your newspaper or radio or TV station and recommend they publish the SpectraBusters op-ed, It don’t pass the smell test: FPL’s extra natural gas pipeline.

FPL wants federal eminent domain to gouge a hundred-foot right of way for a yard-wide fracked methane pipeline through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, claiming Florida needs new power. That don’t pass the smell test.

Or encourage reporters to write a story about it. Or write your own letter to the editor or op-ed or rant and rave or call in to your local radio station.

You can also Continue reading Comment to FERC for the Global Frackdown

It don’t pass the smell test: FPL’s extra natural gas pipeline –SpectraBusters

FPL wants federal eminent domain to gouge a hundred-foot right of way for a yard-wide fracked methane pipeline through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, claiming Florida needs new power. That don’t pass the smell test.
http://spectrabusters.org/2014/09/14/we-grow-increasingly-concerned-dougherty-county-commission-to-ferc/

Nationwide electricity demand continues to decline, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reminded the pipeline-permitting Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in April. EPA asked FPL why it couldn’t implement conservation, efficiency, compressed gas storage, or other energy sources. http://spectrabusters.org/2014/04/23/explain-why-the-gas-is-needed-epa-to-ferc/#decreasing-electricity-sales

FPL projected 13% electricity demand increase in its 2014 ten-year plan to the Florida Public Service Commission (FL PSC). A third pipeline would be a 50% increase. Why? http://spectrabusters.org/2014/04/24/fpls-own-projections-dont-support-need-for-a-new-pipeline/

Sabal Trail, the pipeline joint venture of FPL and Spectra Energy of Houston, claims Duke Energy needs Continue reading It don’t pass the smell test: FPL’s extra natural gas pipeline –SpectraBusters

FPL to purchase NextEra gas fracking subsidiary in Oklahoma

FPL integrated ownership of fracking and pipelines to LNG export for its profit, at the expense of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida landowners, U.S. natural gas customers, and of course FPL ratepayers: that’s what FPL is hoping to wrap up at the Florida PSC.

FPL wants to buy the 50% its parent NextEra Energy bought of “independent” PetroQuest’s Oklahoma fracking operation back in 2010 before FPL put out its December 2012 RFP for what ended up being the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> FSC methane pipeline to Martin County, Florida, plus an FPL pipeline from there to the sea at Riviera Beach. where meanwhile three LNG export operations have been authorized and a fourth LNG export operation has reqeusted a permit from FERC.

FPL’s PR of 25 June 2014 doesn’t mention most of the above, not even that NextEra already owns half of PetroQuest’s Oklahoma fracking operation. FPL proposes innovative plan to invest in natural gas to save customers millions of dollars and lower long-term fuel costs, Continue reading FPL to purchase NextEra gas fracking subsidiary in Oklahoma

State and local permitting for Sabal Trail pipeline

The Florida Public Service Commission has a special say in the Southeast Market Pipelines Project because the Florida Southeast Connection (FSC) leg of this pipeline is completely inside Florida and completely owned by FPL, a Florida regulated electric utility. And Florida has a say because the entire excuse for the three-part Transco -> Sabal Trail -> FSC project is that supposedly Florida needs the power (it doesn’t, but that’s the excuse). FPL is getting so desperate for public acceptance of this boondoggle they pressed their own CEO, Eric Silagy, into attempting to rebut Our Santa Fe River’s latest entry in the op-ed debate.

Sabal Trail and FERC would like everyone to believe state regulators have no say, but that’s just not true. It’s not even clear GA PSC has no say, considering that Continue reading State and local permitting for Sabal Trail pipeline

Timeline: Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline has no permit yet

Spectra, FPL, and Williams have not even formally filed with FERC for pipeline permits yet, and that process usually takes about a year. Permitting confusion benefits Spectra about its Sabal Trail Transmission 36-inch hundred-foot-right-of-way fracked methane pipeline, because people don’t know what they can do. You can file ecomments right now, and show up and protest. As soon as the pipeline company files for the formal permit process, you can file as an intervenor, which gives you legal rights to be heard, file legal briefs, and to appeal. Plus many state and local permits also have to be filed, and people can participate in those processes. Even if there ever is a FERC permit, a landowner who makes the pipeline company actually go through the eminent domain process will very likely get a better deal. If enough landowners say Come and Take It, the whole thing may become uneconomical for Spectra, as for Williams Company when it cancelled the Bluegrass Pipeline in Kentucky.

FERC’s Pre-Filing Process

Spectra and Williams and FPL are currently in the pre-filing process with FERC, Continue reading Timeline: Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline has no permit yet

Floridian LNG Export approved last November, before Sabal Trail Open Houses or FERC Scoping Meetings

On 14 November 2013 the U.S. DoE’s Office of Fossil Energy approved LNG export authority for a company located next to the end of the Transco-Sabal Trail-FSC pipeline in Martin County, Florida, right where FPL is already building another pipeline to the sea. All the time since then Spectra and FERC have been saying the Sabal Trail pipeline is not for export. FERC’s whole rationale for federal eminent domain for this pipeline is that Florida needs the power. If the methane is really for export, what excuse is there for federal eminent domain?

The order’s cover page says:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

OFFICE OF FOSSIL ENERGY

ADVANCED ENERGY SOLUTIONS. LLC ) FE DOCKET NO. I3~104-LNG

ORDER GRANTING LONG-TERM MULTI-CONTRACT
AUTHORIZATION TO EXPORT LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS
IN ISO CONTAINERS LOADED AT THE
FLORIDIAN FACILITY IN MARTIN COUNTY, FLORIDA,
AND EXPORTED VIA OCEAN-GOING VESSEL
TO FREE TRADE AGREEMENT NATIONS
IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

DOE/FE ORDER NO. 3360

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Friday 15 November 2013, the next day after that LNG authorization, Continue reading Floridian LNG Export approved last November, before Sabal Trail Open Houses or FERC Scoping Meetings